Remembering Darwin
Are you an urban intellectual? Discontented suburbanite? Worried that the rest of the world, especially in Harrisburg, isn't evolving in the way you think it ought to go? Wondering if mayor-elect Linda Thompson even knows who Darwin is? Then come to a concert to celebrate the life of the man who first explained the concept of "evolution."
I'm talking about Charles Darwin, of course, born 200 years ago this year. His magnum opus, The Origin of the Species, was published 150 years ago this year. Nice planning!
This coming Saturday, Nov. 7, from 7-10 p.m., you are invited to attend the Concert for Darwin at the nicely redone Midtown Scholar bookstore at 1302 N. Third Street in Harrisburg near the Broad Street Market. Admission is $15.
Performing will be folk rocker Jefferson Pepper of York County and rapper Baba Brinkman of Vancouver, Canada. Pepper will sing songs from his widely hailed latest CD, "American Evolution, Vol. 2." Brinkman is a comic and rap artist of the more literate variety who will give his own spin on "The Origin of the Species."
Rounding things out will be Kenneth Miller, biology professor, science writer, and two-time Colbert Report guest. Miller was one of the key witnesses in the so-called Intelligent Design trial of the Dover (Pa.) Area School Board in U.S. District Court, Harrisburg. Suffice it to say that evolution came out of that trial a big winner. Pepper's wife, author Lauri Lebo, wrote a book called "The Devil in Dover" about the school board's effort to introduce religion, aka "Intelligent Design," into high school biology classes and how some parents fought back.
So it looks to be a night of intellectual fun and frolic in Harrisburg. Be there.