COLLEGE TO HOST INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL "GLOBAL CIVILITY AND UNDERSTANDING"

PHILADELPHIA, April 3, 2006 - Community College of Philadelphia will kick off its 22nd Annual International Festival, a week-long celebration of international food, music, dance and culture, on Monday, April 3.

Among the events that will be held from Monday through Friday will be film screenings, such as the Academy Award-winner Crash, music from artists, such as world-renowned Chinese folk performer Qian Qin, and a variety of dance performances, including a performance by Azhia, the 2003 Jewel of the Nile and Belly Dancer of the Universe winner.

One of the highlights of this year's festival will be a lecture, "Why Civility? Why Today?," by P.M. Forni, Ph.D., a professor in the Romance Languages and Literatures Department of Johns Hopkins University and co-founder of the Johns Hopkins Civility Project in 1997. The lecture will be held from 11 a.m. to 12 noon in the Large Auditorium in the Bonnell Building, on 17th Street between Spring Garden and Callowhill Streets.

Forni is the author of Choosing Civility: The Twenty-Five Rules of Considerate Conduct (St. Martin's Press, February 2002). His series of commentaries, "Speaking Manners, " is aired on WYPR, National Public Radio in Baltimore, Md. National and foreign publications have reported on his work on civility. They include The New York Times, The Times of London, Panorama, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times and The Baltimore Sun . Forni also has appeared on a number of radio and television shows, including ABC's World News Tonight and BBC's Outlook.

For more information call the College's Office of Student Life at 215-751-8164