The West Virginia Division of Culture and History in conjunction with the West Virginia Library Commission will present a live television feed of President-elect Barack Obama’s inaugural ceremony beginning at 11 a.m. in the Cultural Center, Capitol Complex in Charleston. The event is an open invitation and the public is invited to attend. The broadcast will continue until 2 p.m.
Visitors are encouraged to bring a bag lunch, sit at tables, and watch the activities on television sets that will be located in the Great Hall. The inauguration also will be shown on a large screen in the Norman L. Fagan West Virginia State Theater; however, food and drinks are not allowed in the theater.
According to the inaugural schedule, festivities will take place on the west front of the U.S. Capitol. There will be musical selections by the United States Marine Band, followed by The San Francisco Boys Chorus and the San Francisco Girls Chorus. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., will make welcoming remarks and Dr. Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church, will deliver the invocation. Aretha Franklin, the “Queen of Soul,” will then perform a musical selection.
Vice-President-elect Joseph R. Biden, Jr. will be sworn into office by Associate Justice of the Supreme Court John Paul Stevens, followed by a musical selection by John Williams, composer/arranger, with Itzhak Perlman on violin, Yo-Yo Ma on cello, Gabriela Montero on piano and Anthony McGill on clarinet. President-elect Obama will then take the Oath of Office, using President Lincoln’s Inaugural Bible, administered by the Chief Justice of the United States, John G. Roberts, Jr. and deliver his inaugural address. Elizabeth Alexander, professor of African American Studies and American Studies at Yale University and author of five books of poetry will recite a poem; the Reverend Dr. Joseph E., Lowery, a co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference with Martin Luther King, Jr. and a founder of the Black Leadership Forum will deliver the benediction; and the United States Navy Band “Sea Chanters” will perform the National Anthem.
For more information, contact Jacqueline Proctor, deputy commissioner of the Division, at (304) 558-0220.
The West Virginia Division of Culture and History, an agency of the West Virginia Department of Education and the Arts, brings together the state’s past, present and future through programs and services in the areas of archives and history, the arts, historic preservation and museums. Its administrative offices are located at the Cultural Center in the State Capitol Complex in Charleston, which also houses the state archives and state museum. The Cultural Center is West Virginia’s official showcase for the arts. The agency also operates a network of museums and historic sites across the state. For more information about the Division’s programs, visit www.wvculture.org. The Division of Culture and History is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer.
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