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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, April 1, 2005 -  Contact: Sandra Faux or Joseph Giomboni King’s College Public Relations Office, (570) 208-5958.

ACCLAIMED WELSH FILM PRESENTED AT KING'S COLLEGE

April 1, 2005 – King’s College Ethnic Community Outreach program is sponsoring a screening of the film Hedd Wyn, the biography of the Welsh poet Ellis Evans, in the Burke Auditorium of the William G. McGowan School of Business on Sunday, April 10, at 2:30 p.m.

Nominated for a 1992 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, Hedd Wyn tells the story of young Welsh farmer and poet, Ellis Humphrey Evans, who had to leave his home, family and his literary potential behind to fight during World War I.

An accomplished poet, Evans, who wrote under the pseudonym Hedd Wyn, wanted desperately to compete for the bardic chair at the National Eisteddfod, the highest honor for any poet in Wales. He came close to winning the National Eisteddfod at Aberystwyth in 1916, but by 1917 he was stationed in Belgium fighting the Germans. This film charts how this reluctant soldier/poet fights all odds to enter the Eisteddfod and is posthumously awarded the bardic chair, which became known in Wales as the “Black Chair of Birkenhead.”

The 110-minute film is in Welsh with English subtitles. This film program is made possible through the sponsorship of the Ethnic Community Outreach of Ethnic Communities and Associations Initiative (ECAI) at King’s College. ECAI was launched in mid-2002 to explore, recognize and celebrate the role of ethnic communities and their voluntary organizations in northeastern Pennsylvania. For more information, please contact Rev. Patrick Sullivan, C.S.C., coordinator, Ethnic Communities and Associations Initiative, at 208-5816.

The screening of the film is free and open to the public. The Burke Auditorium of the William G. McGowan School of Business is located on North River Street. For information about available parking at King's for those attending the screening, please call the King's switchboard at 208-5900.

King’s College is a Catholic College sponsored by the Congregation of Holy Cross