Dear Janis: Here is the announcement you requested. It was nice to see you at ECU. I stayed for Poetry Alive, which was not as good as past performances. Perhaps that was because I sat at the back of the room and could not hear very well. The performers needed microphones. Those sitting up front seemed to enjoy it a lot. Martha The National Council for Social Studies has selected Martha Rhynes as the recipient of a Carter G. Woodson award for her biography, Gwendolyn Brooks: Poet from Chicago, published by Morgan Reynolds (2004) for Grades 7-12. Rhynes will receive the award at the NCSS convention in Baltimore on November 19-20. The selection committee said the book "depicts ethnicity in the United States with sensitivity and accuracy." Carter G. Woodson is the Father of Black History. Beginning in 1915, he compiled sociological and historical data in order to study and preserve experiences of African Americans. In 1926, he established Negro History Week, which was expanded in 1960 to Black History Month in February. Rhynes has also written biographies about Langston Hughes and Ralph Ellison.