U.S. Election Transparency, Voting Rights & Music to the Messages of MLK & Langston Hughes

  • December 17, 2023 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM

  • Eastern Standard Time

Ticket Price $10.00 This event is now over
Description

U.S. Election Transparency, Voting Rights and Music to the Messages of Martin Luther King & Langston Hughes

Sunday, December 17 at 4:00 PM EST - Online Event

NOTE: You will receive a link to gain access before the event

Ahead of the 2024 U.S. Presidential election next year, the themes at this year’s event include voter suppression, the connection between voter suppression and systemic racism, how to improve election transparency through the retention of ballot images and poll tapes, and how to make vote counting a more public process.

Ray Lutz, Jason Flatley, and John Brakey will speak live and we will play clips from talks given by Lynn Bernstein, Bennie Smith, Emily Levy, Paul Smith, and Jawharrah Bahar at our event last year.

HEAR FROM ELECTION TRANSPARENCY AND VOTING RIGHTS EXPERTS AND ACTIVISTS:

Ray Lutz - Executive Director at Citizens Oversight, a non-partisan organization that has been involved in election oversight, including audits and procedural review, since 2005.

Jason Flatley - Head of Design and Product Development at America Counts, the flagship initiative of Democracy Counts, Inc., a nonprofit, non-partisan election integrity organization. 

John Brakey - Director and Co-founder of AUDIT Elections USA a non-partisan organization advocating for hand-marked paper ballots and making ballot images a public record

Lynn Bernstein - Founder of Transparent Elections NC, trained international election observer, National Voting Rights Task Force member

Bennie Smith - Tennessee State Election Commissioner and software developer known nationally for his research uncovering an extraordinarily high-risk tampering mechanism and examination of election system vulnerabilities covered by Bloomberg's Cyber Security Segment  

Emily Levy - Founder and Director of Scrutineers, a non-partisan election protection group training volunteers to observe the processing and counting of votes and the place where volunteers, activists, and seasoned election experts come together to protect the US elections from interference, discrimination, and errors.

Paul Smith - Castleton Festival Board Chair, Senior Vice President of Campaign Legal Center, works directly with Campaign Legal Center's talented team of litigators to protect and advance American democracy through innovative litigation strategies and has argued several voting rights cases at the Supreme Court, including Vieth v. Jubelirer and Gill v. Whitford, involving partisan gerrymandering and LULAC v. Perry, involving the legality of Texas’s mid-decade redrawing of congressional districts

Jawharrah Bahar - Director of Outreach at Free Hearts, an organization that educates, advocates, and supports families impacted by incarceration.

HEAR MOVING MUSIC TO THE INSPIRATIONAL WISDOM OF DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR., LANGSTON HUGHES AND AFRICAN PROVERBS

John Wubbenhorst - John is a unique musician having grown up playing the western flute along with many other instruments and found his ultimate instrument in the haunting and beautiful bansuri bamboo flute from North India. After decades of study with maestro Hariprasad Chaurasia, John has developed an approach that features the bansuri with its roots in Indian music but also reflects John's lifetime of musical experiences in jazz, western classical, and ecstatic forms of music in many genres.

Tom Teasley - World Percussionist and Composer, Artist-in-residence at Castleton Festival, DRUM! Magazine Drummie Award World Percussionist of the Year, Young Audiences of Virginia Artist of The Year, Five Fulbright-Hays Awards for collaborating with indigenous master musicians.  The Washington Post stated, in a recent CD review, that Tom is ..."a multi-instrumental genius" for his compelling performance on over fifteen different instruments!

Charles Williams - Internationally acclaimed opera singer, performed at the Metropolitan Opera, Carnegie Hall, The Barns at Wolf Trap, The Smithsonian, and the Kennedy Center, performed in theaters and opera houses and for radio and television in Munich, Berlin, Hamburg, Zurich and Vienna, spoken word artist specializing in the poetry of Langston Hughes and other writers of the Harlem Renaissance, sings and teaches multiple music genres, vocal consultant for the Grammy award-winning group Sweet Honey in the Rock. "It's the voice of history, ageless yet strong -- and utterly convincing." - The Los Angeles Times

Enjoy the music and we welcome your questions for the speakers during the Q&A!

Ticket sales and donations benefit A.U.D.I.T. Elections USA. (Americans United for Democracy, Integrity and  Transparency), a 501(c)3 NGO that advocates and litigates for public oversight of federal, state, and local elections.

Date & Time

Sun, Dec 17, 2023 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM

Castleton Festival

Founded in 2009 by Maestro Lorin Maazel and Dietlinde Turban Maazel, the Castleton Festival introduced classical music, theatre, and opera to the rolling hills of Rappahannock County.

Castleton has been a life-changing experience for over 3,000 participants. Set in one of the most beautiful areas of Virginia, Castleton’s performances take place at the Theatre House: a former chicken coop for 15,000 hens converted to a “mini-Globe” European-style theatre with one of the finest acoustics in the world.  

There are four primary themes to Castleton’s present activities:

  • Castleton in Residency (CiR): one- to four-week Residencies for Artists of the highest caliber furthering their collaborative work and artistic growth. Artists are invited based on outstanding talent. In line with Maestro Maazel’s ethos, they are proactively encouraged to take risks and to challenge their artistic boundaries. The opportunity to fully immerse in the Maestro’s Legacy, his home, his music library, and his composing studio, together with performing in the Theatre House and experiencing the bucolic surroundings, imbues the artists with inspiration. Residencies to date have exceeded all expectations culminating in numerous recordings, some available via streaming on Castleton’s website.
  • Castleton in Mentorship (CiM): Artists in Residence are encouraged to make time available to teach Master Classes to high potential students from the local community. The Artists are also invited to bring their own students to participate in the unique experience. 
  • Castleton in Conversation (CiC): In collaboration with Daniel Lelchuk’s Talking Beats podcast, Castleton offers a new series which engages an extraordinary diversity of guests such as writers, musicians, scientists, entertainers, and thinkers in captivating and spirited dialogue. The common link between all is a passion for music.
  • Castleton in Performance (CiP), a year-round series, offers a multicultural experience. This thematically diverse series of recitals, chamber music, jazz, world music, theatre, chamber opera, and dance, brings internationally acclaimed artists into our own backyard. Eminent performers have included Mstislav Rostropovich, José Carreras, Itzhak Perlman, Emanuel Ax, Sir James Galway, Wynton Marsalis, Pepe Romero, Alec Baldwin, and Claire Bloom.