News Release

Photo note:  To download a photo of Stone, see end of release.

Sonja Haynes Stone’s daughter 
to deliver memorial lecture Tuesday

By LAUREN G. GODWIN
Sonja Haynes Stone Center

CHAPEL HILL -- Precious Stone, daughter of the late University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill professor Dr. Sonja Haynes Stone, will deliver the university’s 11^th annual Sonja Haynes Stone Memorial Lecture Tuesday (Nov. 9).

UNC-Chapel Hill's Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History, which officially opened in August, will host the lecture in honor of the center's namesake. The free public program will be held at 7 p.m. in the center’s Jimmy Hitchcock Multipurpose Room. In addition to Precious Stone’s talk, the event will include remarks from center director Dr. Joseph Jordan and musical selections performed by the Black Student Movement Gospel Choir.

An assistant professor at the Community College of Baltimore County in Maryland, Precious Stone won a 1997 Bronze Apple from the National Educational Media Network for producing the video "The African Textile Collection of Mrs. Mattye Reed." In 1988, she was a winner of the N.C. Black Writers' Competition for her play "Three Nights."

She attended Yale University, earning a bachelor of arts degree in film studies with theater studies. She later earned a master’s degree in folklore from UNC-Chapel Hill and a master of fine arts degree in drama with a concentration in film and video production from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

The annual lecture is a celebration of Dr. Sonja Haynes Stone's achievements and commitment to the foundation of the Stone Center, located near the Bell Tower. Stone was director of UNC-Chapel Hill's African and Afro-American Studies curriculum from 1974 to 1979, and she was an associate professor at UNC-Chapel Hill until her death in 1991.

Each year, the lecture features a black woman whose commitment to community mirrors that of Dr. Sonja Haynes Stone. Previous lecturers include actress Alfre Woodard, poet/activist Sonia Sanchez and teacher/activist Angela Davis.

For more information, visit the center’s Web site at http://ibiblio.org/shscbch/ or call (919) 962-9001.

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Photo URL:  http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/visiting/stone_precious.jpg

Stone Center contact: Antoinette Parker, (919) 962-9001

News Services contact: Lisa Katz, (919) 962-2093