Calendar Highlights

The University's annual service honoring King will be held at noon Monday, Jan. 16, in Rockefeller Memorial Chapel. Mohammed Athie, chairman of the American Anti-Slavery Group, will be the featured speaker.

Athie, formerly a consular official at the Mauritanian Embassy, has written about the slave trade that persists in Mauritania and other countries and that, according to Athie, is largely ignored by governments and human-rights organizations.

The service will include performances by UC Dancers and the student vocal group MaJ'N.

Martin Luther King Day festivities are organized by the Coordinating Council for Minority Issues, the Martin Luther King Day Committee and Rockefeller Chapel. For more information, call 702-0161.

The Hospitals will recognize King's birthday with the presentation of the 20th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Humanitarian Award. The award is presented to the Hospitals or Biological Sciences Division employee who best exemplifies King's commitment to fellowship, peace and justice.

Entertainer Ben Vereen will be the keynote speaker at the award ceremony, which will be held from 1 to 2 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 10, in Room P-117 at the Medical Center.

For more information about the ceremony, call Pat Adams Childs at 702-1091.

Sleuth opening at Court Theatre Preview performances of Sleuth, Anthony Shaffer's Tony Award-winning mystery suspense thriller, will begin Friday, Jan. 6, at Court Theatre. Regular performances of the play will begin Wednesday, Jan. 18, and continue through Sunday, Feb. 12.

Directed by Gordon Reinhart, Sleuth stars Joseph Jefferson Award nominees Nicholas Pennell and David New as Andrew Wyke and Milo Tindle, respectively, and Aidan Sylvius-Dowe as Inspector Doppler.

In conjunction with Sleuth, Court Theatre will offer several adult-education programs funded by the John Nuveen Company. Discussions with the cast will follow preview performances, and discussions with guest leaders will follow regular Wednesday and Thursday performances through Thursday, Feb. 2.

For show times and ticket information, see the Calendar.

Music fest to aid Hyde Park shelter The Winter Music Festival -- two weekends of music by local bands and University performers -- will be held on campus to benefit the Shiloh Warming Center, a Hyde Park shelter for women and children.

"Showcase of the Bands," scheduled for 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Jan. 13 and 14, will feature local rock bands, and "Roll Over Rockefeller," scheduled for 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Jan. 20 and 21, will feature campus a cappella groups. All performances will be held in the Kinahan Theater in Reynolds Club.

Admission is $3. Tickets may be purchased in advance at the Reynolds Club box office or by phone at 702-3414; tickets will also be available at the door. For more information, call 702-3414.

First live TV broadcast from Pole The first-ever live television broadcast from the South Pole will feature University of Chicago researchers and the South Pole Infrared Explorer (SPIREX) telescope -- the telescope that provided audiences around the world with dramatic pictures of Jupiter as Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 smashed into that planet in July.

The program will explore both the rewards and the difficulties of doing scientific research in one of the coldest, most remote places on earth.

The live telecast, "Spaceship South Pole," will air on PBS stations nationwide (WTTW/Channel 11 in Chicago) at 4:30 p.m. CST Tuesday, Jan. 10. (In the event of weather problems, the contingency date is Thursday, Jan. 12, at 4:30 p.m.)

Mark Hereld, Senior Research Associate in Astronomy & Astrophysics and the principal investigator for SPIREX, and James Sweitzer, Assistant Director of the University-based Center for Astrophysical Research in Antarctica (CARA), will answer questions from high school students in Chicago, Maryland, Virginia and Hawaii in a live, interactive exchange.

The Jan. 10 broadcast is Part 3 of "Live From Antarctica," a four-part educational series created with the support of the National Science Foundation and NASA. Part 4, "From Pole to Planet," will air at noon Thursday, Jan. 19.

The students in Chicago, who will join the program from a remote link at WTTW, are members of the University's Space Explorers program, an educational outreach program designed to give students from Chicago public schools a greater understanding and appreciation of science.