ba/poets.pr                      Contact: Odessa Shannon, 301-468-4260
 
 
 HUMAN RELATIONS COMMISSION
 NAMES FIRST "FELLOWS IN THE ARTS"   For Immediate Release: Oct. 28, 1996
 
      Poets Davi Walders and John William Smith have been named by the
 Montgomery County Human Relations Commission as the first "Community Fellows
 in the Arts and Human Relations."  The new initiative broadens the
 commission's community outreach mission by including the arts.  
      In 1994, while serving on the commission, the two honorees began a
 series of joint readings to help focus on diversity.  Since then, they have
 used their poetry to initiate dialogues on race, gender and religion with
 audiences throughout the County, including those at Rockville Arts Place,
 Montgomery College and Community Ministries of Montgomery County.
      Walders' recognitions for her poetry about women, aging and religion
 include the Virginia Poetry Society's Franklin Dew Award for a series of poems
 on the Holocaust.  The Chevy Chase resident was a 1996 semi-finalist for the
 Alden B. Dow Creativity Fellowship for her work establishing writing groups at
 NIH for the parents of HIV/AIDS children and at a local domestic abuse
 shelter. She also serves on the County's Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
 Commemorative Committee and the Advisory Board to the Montgomery County Arts
 Council.
      Smith, who lives in Rockville, wrote for many years with the Frederick
 Douglas Watts Writers Workshop.  A former member of the Montgomery County Arts
 Council, he has been a member of Cedar Lane Poets and currently chairs the 
                                   -more-
 
 HUMAN RELATIONS COMMISSION .FIRST FELLOWS .                         2-2-2-2
 
 Montgomery County Task Force on Mentoring and the County's Integration Action
 Project.
      Walders and Smith presented a brief reading before the Commission at its
 October 28 meeting.
      For more information about the Fellows program or to contact the poets
 for community events, call the Human Relations Commission at 301-468-4260;
 Davi Walders at 301-657-3282 or John Smith at 301-460-6817.
 
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