Students to Hold Earth Day Festival In Yard Today

Seeking to stimulate a rebirth of environmental activism at Harvard, a student ecological action group is sponsoring a celebration of Earth Day today in the Sever quad from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Folk musicians and gospel groups will perform all day, and Brother Blue, a local street performer, will tell stories at 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m.

"The whole purpose of Earth Day is to have fun and enjoy the spring." Kenneth B. Powelson '84, a co-chairman of the Environmental Action Group, said yesterday.

Earth Day was first celebrated in 1970, at the height of American environmental activism On that first Earth Day, forums at all Harvard Houses discussed environmental issues while hundreds of Boston-area students staged a "die-in" at Logan Airport protesting U.S. government plans to build a supersonic passenger plane.

The student group also sponsors a weekly lecture or film series and has set up newspaper recycling projects at several of the River Houses The group plans a major recycling drive for next fall.