*EPF404 12/16/2004
Powell Honors State Department's CultureConnect Ambassadors
(Celebrated artists, athletes reach out to young people around the world) (1600)

By Phyllis McIntosh
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- At a special U.S. Department of State ceremony December 13, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell honored 13 celebrities in the arts and sports who serve as the Department's CultureConnect ambassadors, reaching out to young people around the world.

The CultureConnect program, created by Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs Patricia S. Harrison, recruits men and women acclaimed in their fields who are willing to contribute their time and talent on behalf of youth. Over the past two years, participating musicians, dancers, actors, writers, architects, arts managers, and athletes have traveled to more than 40 countries and worked with tens of thousands of young people through master classes, concerts, sports clinics, and discussions.

Via the Department's CultureConnect Web site http://www.cultureconnect.state.gov/, they continue to mentor many of the young people they have met.

"When it comes to helping people better understand America, the greatest ambassadors we have are the creators of American culture," Powell said at the ceremony. "The epic stories of the American people are best expressed through the rhythms of our music and of our poetry, through the grace of our dancers and athletes."

Harrison noted that the State Department has a wide range of programs aimed at improving mutual understanding between the United States and other countries. "But increasingly, it is our cultural programs that are generating interest and enthusiasm as a tool to open dialogue with young people worldwide," she said.

HONOREES INCLUDE PERFORMERS, ATHLETES

Those honored at the ceremony include: dancer and choreographer Debbie Allen; opera singer Denyce Graves; architect Daniel Libeskind, designer of the new World Trade Center site in New York; Michael Kaiser, president of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington; cellist Yo-Yo Ma; jazz trumpeter and composer Wynton Marsalis; Frank McCourt, teacher and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Angela's Ashes; photographer Joel Meyerowitz, whose exhibit of post-9/11 images from the World Trade Center has toured the world; actress Doris Roberts, an Emmy award winner for her role in the popular television series Everybody Loves Raymond; actor, director and producer Ron Silver; and singer Mary Wilson, an original member of the famous Motown group, the Supremes.

Also honored were former Georgetown University basketball stars, Omari Faulkner and Courtland Freeman, who joined the program this year as cultural envoys. In the past six months, they have traveled to more than 20 countries in eastern Europe, the Middle East, Africa and South America, conducting basketball clinics and affirming such positive aspects of American culture as diligence, teamwork and volunteerism.

Harrison concluded the ceremony by introducing the newest CultureConnect ambassador, Bernie Williams, star centerfielder of the New York Yankees. Also an accomplished jazz guitarist, Williams is slated to travel to Asia this winter to connect with young people through both sports and music.

AMBASSADORS SHARE PERSONAL EXPERIENCES

In conversations with the Washington File, several of the ambassadors gave high praise for the good work of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs leadership team. The ambassadors noted that CultureConnect has given them an opportunity to relate to people around the world on a more personal level.

"Many times when I visit other countries, I am working, creating a show, but this time I was there to teach, to connect, and to experience," Debbie Allen said of her recent trip to China. "We exchanged ideas on the artistic front, but then we'd sit down and have dinner and they'd ask me questions about politics and social issues and the mindset of this country." She added that her visit confirmed "it's really the arts that will transcend all the problems we have, the bridge that will gap the divide."

Doris Roberts noted that the high school students she met in Costa Rica knew her from Everybody Loves Raymond, which is widely seen outside the United States. "I have made them laugh, so they're open to hearing me," she says. "I hope by talking to them about my life and my struggles and how I got where I am that they will realize it's their possibility as well."

Other ambassadors commented that their personal experiences helped them relate to young people, whatever the country. Mary Wilson tells youngsters she meets how she and the other Supremes, Diana Ross and Florence Ballard, were "three little black girls who dared to dream."

On visits to Tunisia, Italy, and India, architect Daniel Libeskind told students about his background as an immigrant to the United States. "I came to this country when I was 13, I didn't speak the language, my parents were very hardworking people in the sweat shops of New York." Communicating those experiences, he said, created "a commonality between people instead of just abstraction about America and the government."

Writer Frank McCourt, who urged students in Israel and Algeria to convert their own harsh experiences into artistic expression, said his childhood in Ireland helped him empathize with the anger and frustration he witnessed among the young people in the Middle East. "For all my life I've been concerned with the situation in the north of Ireland between Catholics and Protestants, and this craziness has always confounded me. I see parallels in what's going on between the Israelis and the Palestinians."

Actor Ron Silver helped launch the concept of the CultureConnect program when he traveled to China in 2002 on the first anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks and presented the State Department's official 9/11 photography exhibit. Silver, a former student of Chinese who once spent a year in Taiwan, said he was "thrilled" to visit the mainland and address young people in their native language.

The photography exhibit, After September 11: Images of Ground Zero, was created at the State Department's request by photographer Joel Meyerowitz, who as a CultureConnect Ambassador has accompanied the exhibit to many of the 200 cities and 75 countries where it has toured and been viewed by millions.

Another of the first CultureConnect ambassadors, Denyce Graves, made her inaugural trip to Warsaw, Poland, in May 2003 and since has traveled to Venezuela, Canada, Cyprus, France, Russia and Romania, reaching thousands of young people through opera master classes and performances.

Michael Kaiser was lauded for his efforts in counseling organizations and cultural institutions in Mexico about arts management and especially for helping to bring the Iraqi National Symphony to the United States in December 2003 for an historic visit and performance with the National Symphony Orchestra.

Cellist Yo-Yo Ma performed with the Iraqi orchestra and National Symphony in that concert and conducted master classes with Iraqi musicians in Washington and New York. He also has met with and taught thousands of students during CultureConnect trips to Lithuania, Korea and Lebanon.

One of the newer ambassadors, Wynton Marsalis, traveled to Mexico in May, where he interacted with more than 800 children in master classes, workshops, and performances.

Even for artists who have traveled and performed widely, CultureConnect has provided some memorable experiences. For Mary Wilson, who has journeyed to South America and South Asia, it was a visit to Mozambique and Botswana in Africa that was "really touching because of the AIDS epidemic there.

"It was an adventure where I got down in the trenches and talked to children as I would to my own children or grandchildren about AIDS," said Wilson, who publicly took an AIDS test and required proof of a test as admission to her concerts in Africa.

Debbie Allen especially remembers a young boy who danced for her in Yinchuan, China. "He was just amazing," she recalled. "I would so much like to bring him to America to study, and he would so much like to come."

Several of the ambassadors have had the good fortune to meet again with some of their young friends who have come to the United States. One student from Costa Rica visited Doris Roberts at her home, where they reminisced over cookies and sodas about their experiences in his homeland. Six Pakistani students reconnected with Mary Wilson in Las Vegas for a master class and conversation, and a visiting musician from Mozambique joined her onstage at one of her concerts, accompanying her on his homemade traditional drum.

"TO GIVE BACK IS THE MOST WONDERFUL FEELING"

The personal rewards of CultureConnect have been many, the ambassadors said.

"The gift I have received is to see myself in them, to see them in a place that I remember [the other Supremes] and I were at [as children]," Mary Wilson said of the young people she has met. "I don't ever want to lose that, because it keeps you in touch with who you really are, not who you've become."

The celebrities also spoke of the joy of "giving back" to a country that has rewarded them with fame. "I've been able to make my career here and be very successful at it," said baseball star Bernie Williams, who grew up in Puerto Rico. "[CultureConnect] is a kind of giving back for how good this country has been to me."

"To give back is the most wonderful feeling you can have in the world," declared Doris Roberts, who met with young AIDS patients, as well as students, in Costa Rica. "When I put my head on the pillow at night I feel good about myself, and it gives me a clear, wonderful conscience and a good sleep."

(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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