MAC Center for the Arts to host Robbie Burns Event

NEWPORT — Break out your tartan (plaid) tammies, tassles, knickers and kilts and come out to the MAC Center for the Arts to celebrate poet Robbie Burns, January 18, 2015, from 2:00 – 4:00 p.m.

This celebration includes Scottish piper, Beverly Davis, who will set the mood, with additional music provided by harpist Linda Schneck, and vocal harmonies by Ben and Janice Luce, Susan-Lynn Johns, and Lynn Leimer.

Setting the tone is The Chairman, the Master of Ceremonies, Bradleigh Stockwell, who will Address the Lassies, and Brian McCrae who will process in with the Haggis and Address the Haggis.

Poetry, readings, games, and Auld Lang Syne, come unleash your inner Bard and come share in the tatties and neeps. Not sure what that is? Well here are some other things you probably didn’t know:

Seven Facts you never knew about “Robbie Burns”:

*Bob Dylan selected Burns’ 1794 song “red, Red Rose” when asked for the source of his greatest creative inspiration.

*A miniature book of Robbie Burns’ poetry was carried into orbit by astronaut, Nick Patrick, on a two week space mission completing a 5.7 million mile trip and 217 orbits of the Earth.

*A status of Burns in Camperdown, Australia, is thought to be the oldest existing statue of the poet anywhere in the world. The sculpture, cared by John Greenshields, was shipped to Australia in the 1850’s.

*Pop singer Michael Jackson was said to have been a big fan of Robert Burns and was reputed to have worked on an album setting some of the Bard’s poems to music.

*John Steinbeck to the title of his 1937 novel “of Mice and Men’ from a line contained in Burns’ poem “to a Mouse”: “The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men/Gang aft agley.”

*The town of Mosgiel near Dunedin, New Zealand was named after Robert Burns’ farm in Ayrshire.

*The Soviet Union was the first country in the world to honor Burns with a commemorative stamp, marking the 160th anniversary of his death in 1956.

This is a Benefit for the MAC. Seating is limited, $10 tax deductible donation to the MAC. Reservations are encouraged by emailing [email protected] or purchase your tickets in advance at the MAC Center for the Arts, Main Street, Newport.