so felicia curry is familiar to many many of us and the dc area. she starred and received critical acclaim in many stage productions. she's received many recognitions for work. including the prestigious helen hayes award for those people that live in this area. you've no doubt seeing her as the host of weta arts the local pbs station, which is local only and name only. it's known across the country. she's currently starring in our town. with the shakespeare theater company and in fact not long after this ends, she'll be racing downtown to star in a two o'clock performance. so we're very happy that she was able to come here. felicia is also an associate artist at forge theater. which i'm sure everybody recognizes the place that abraham lincoln was assassinated. this past fall. she starred as marian anderson in the play my lord what a night. which was about marian anderson staying with? one of my favorite guys albert einstein in princeton when she went there for a concert and was refused the ability to stay at the local. hotel so she stayed with albe

frank smith, felicia curry, and stephen lang.k sands. i especially want to personally thank jamie boyle of the national park service for making all of this possible, and doing her best to make my job easier. she is in the back, there, if you want to wave. [applause] we have to thank the lincoln forum for cosponsoring this event with us. especially its chairman, harold holder. [applause] i want to thank roberta who could not be with us today, but, who provided much of the underwriting for the program today. [applause] and, as president of the lincoln group of the district of columbia, i would probably be stoned if i did not thank all of the board, all of the members, and all of the volunteers of the lincoln group of the district of columbia, who have worked tirelessly over the last year to help bring this program to you today. please thank them. [applause] finally, i want to thank all of you in the audience today. you have all participated in a one-of-a-kind event that we literally waited 100 years to do, just so all of you could