GENESEO, N.Y. – Gwendolyn Simmons, professor of religion at the University of Florida, will deliver the keynote address Jan. 27 during Geneseo’s weeklong commemoration of Martin Luther King Jr. Her address, titled “Inconvenient Hero: Martin Luther King” begins at 7 p.m. in Alice Austin Theatre and is open to the public without charge.
Simmons has long been involved in civil rights activism. During her early adult years as a college student and thereafter, she was active with the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and spent seven years working full time on voter registration and desegregation activities in Mississippi, Georgia, and Alabama during the height of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s.
Other events during the week will include:
Jan. 25: Film screening of "My Brooklyn" (7 p.m., Newton 214). This 2012 documentary examines gentrification in Brooklyn, N.Y., and how skyrocketing prices and property values have forced many residents out of their old neighborhoods.
Jan. 26: Candlelight Vigil (6 p.m., Sturges Quad)
Jan. 27: Panel discussion "Islam and Gender in the 21st Century" (2:30 -3:30 p.m., Newton 214). This panel will feature keynote speaker Gwendolyn Simmons; Megan Abbas, assistant professor of history at SUNY Geneseo; and Dr. Linda Steet, associate professor of education at SUNY Geneseo.
Jan. 28: Film screening of "Do the Right Thing" (7 p.m., Newton 214). This 1989 movie is one of director Spike Lee's most famous films. It follows the events on the hottest day of the year on a street in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, and how everyone's hate and bigotry smolder and build until it explodes into violence.
Feb. 1: Panel Discussion, "Civil Rights: The Role of the Student, the Community Activist and the Church," with Rev. Dr. Sean E. Tucker, Pastor, Second Baptist Church, Mumford, N.Y., 5 p.m., Location TBA.
The events are sponsored by the President's Diversity Commission, the Office of the Provost, the Africana/Black Studies Program, the History Department, the Xerox Center for Multicultural Teacher Education, the Office of Multicultural Programming and Services, the Teaching and Learning Center, the Women's Studies Program, and the Institute for Community Well-Being.
Media Contact:
David Irwin
Media Relations Director
(585) 245-5529
Irwin@geneseo.edu