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Poet and Little Rock Nine member 
to speak during MLK week at UNC

CHAPEL HILL — Nikki Giovanni, a nationally recognized poet and University Distinguished Professor at Virginia Tech, will deliver the keynote address for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Week, Jan.15-20.

Giovanni will speak at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 18 in Memorial Hall on Cameron Avenue. Free reserved-seat tickets will be available to the public at the Carolina Union and Memorial Hall box offices beginning Jan. 13. UNC students may pick up tickets starting Jan. 11.

Ernest Green, the oldest of the first nine black students to integrate Central High School in Little Rock, Ark., will give a free public address at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 19. "Lessons from Little Rock in Achieving the Dream" will be the title of his talk in the Great Hall of the Frank Porter Graham Student Union off South Road.

Green also will speak informally in a program for students at 3:30 p.m. Jan. 19 at the Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History off South Road. The public may listen in as space allows.

UNC’s 25^th annual MLK Week will include poetry readings, song and dance, an oratorical contest, a memorial rally, talks and discussions. Events will be free and open to the public unless otherwise noted.

The celebration week will begin on Jan. 15 with the 21^st annual University-Community Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Banquet, set for 7 p.m. at UNC’s William and Ida Friday Center for Continuing Education off N.C. 54.

The Rev. Reginald Vann Stevens of White Rock Baptist Church in Durham will be keynote speaker. Local business, civic, religious and university representatives sponsor the banquet. Tickets are $25; some seats remain and may be purchased by calling (919) 962-6962.

The Jan. 18 program including Giovanni’s talk also will feature the presentation of the 24^th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship to a UNC junior whose activities demonstrate commitment to the humanitarian ideals King espoused.

"Nikki Giovanni continues to inspire young student activists through her poetry, humor and social commentary on American social justice issues." said Dr. Archie Ervin, associate provost for diversity and multicultural affairs and chair of the Chancellor’s Committee for the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration. "She spans more than four decades as a controversial poet, and her words are still meaningful and challenging to us today."

Giovanni is known internationally as a poet, writer, commentator, activist and educator. One of the most widely read American poets, she prides herself on being "a Black American, a daughter, a mother, a professor of English."

She has written more than two dozen books, including volumes of poetry, illustrated children’s books and three collections of essays. Her early books, including "Gemini: An Extended Autobiographic Statement on My First Twenty-Five Years of Being a Poet," established her as an important thinker in making connections between the civil rights and feminist movements of the 1970s.

Her book "Racism 101" includes controversial essays about race in America and is frequently assigned in college courses.

Giovanni has received 21 honorary doctorates and other awards including "Woman of the Year" designations from three different magazines. She received Governors’ Awards in the Arts from Tennessee and Virginia.

Her three most recent volumes of poetry, "Love Poems," "Blues: For All the Changes" and "Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea" won the NAACP Image Award in 1998, 2000, and 2003. Since 1987, she has taught writing and literature at Virginia Tech.

Green became involved in employment law in 1965 with a building-trade apprenticeship for the Adolph Institute, a project to help minority women in the South find career opportunities.

He directed the A. Philip Randolph Education Fund from 1968 to 1976. Between 1977 and 1981, Green was assistant secretary in the Labor Department under President Jimmy Carter.

Since 1981, Green has worked in the private sector for consulting firms. His numerous awards and honors include the NAACP Spingarn Award and the Rockefeller Public Service Award.

"Ernest Green’s story will resonate with college students," said Dr. Tim McMillan of UNC’s Department of African and Afro-American Studies. "He was 17 when he entered the struggle for equal access to education."

While modern students reflect on the turmoil and angst of their senior year in high school, McMillan said, Green will make them consider having to sue to attend high school, face angry mobs, be accompanied every day by armed guards, have constant and serious death threats leveled at them and their families and have to deal with continuous international media coverage.

"Ernest Green was a foot soldier in the civil rights movement," McMillan said. "He brought up the front of the implementation of Brown v. Board and had to deal with the personal and emotional consequences of the decision in ways that leaders and organizers of the Civil Rights movement did not.

"By virtue of being the first black student to graduate from Central High School, Green met almost all of the other key figures in the movement. He will provide insight into the workings and failings of the movement."

The university will be closed on Jan. 16 to observe the national King holiday. But UNC students will gather at 10 a.m. that day in 111 Carroll Hall to begin a day of service, organized by the student group Carolina R.O.C.T.S. (Rejuvenating Our Community Through Service).

The Chapel Hill community will observe the holiday with a memorial rally beginning at 9 a.m. Jan. 16 at the downtown Chapel Hill post office, followed by a march to First Baptist Church at 106 N. Roberson St. There, the Rev. Brian E. Wright of Terrell’s Creek Missionary Baptist Church in Chapel Hill will give a keynote address.

The strategies and challenges of community activism will be examined at 4 p.m. Jan. 17 in Room 3206 A-B of the student union. The Carolina Women’s Center will sponsor the program, titled "Moving Thoughts Into Action: How to be an Advocate."

Chapel Hill and Carrboro civil rights leaders and community members will share their experiences during the movement in the program "Reinventing the Future through the Past and the Present," at 5 p.m. in the Stone Center’s Cobb Theatre.

Students, faculty and staff will read poetry inspired by King’s life and work at "He Was a Poem: An Evening of Poetry Inspired by Martin Luther King Jr.," at 7 p.m. Jan. 17 in the Robert and Sallie Brown Gallery and Museum of the Stone Center. Raquel Cogell, Stone Center Librarian, is choosing the literature for the program, sponsored by the center and the University Library.

The Carolina Women’s Center will present a multimedia panel discussion on the participation of women of color in the feminist movement and women in the civil rights movement on Jan. 19 at 7 p.m. in Dey Hall’s Toy Lounge.

At 4 p.m. Jan. 18 in the Great Hall of the student union, students will participate in an oratorical contest and panel discussion examining the question "In the past 25 years, have we truly embraced the multicultural society of Dr. King’s dreams, or have our efforts been in vain?" Giovanni will offer remarks.

At 7 p.m. Jan. 20 in the Great Hall, student performers will present "I, Too, Sing America," a performance of song, dance and poetry that examines the progress of Dr. King’s dream and celebrates the diversity of Carolina’s campus.

The week’s events are sponsored by the Chancellor’s Committee for the MLK Celebration with the support of numerous UNC groups, including the African and Afro-American Studies department, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc., Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc., the Black Student Movement, the Campus Y, Carolina R.O.C.T.S., the Carolina Union Activities Board, the Carolina Women's Center, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc., Diversity and Multicultural Affairs, the executive branch of student government, Housing and Residential Education, the Martin Luther King Jr. Established Lecture Fund, the National Pan-Hellenic Council, the offices of the Chancellor and the Provost, the Residence Hall Association, the Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History, Student Affairs, the UNC athletics department , the UNC NAACP Chapter and the University Library.

For a detailed schedule of events and contact information, visit www.unc.edu/diversity/mlk  or contact the Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs at (919) 962-6962.

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Photo URLs: http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/visiting/giovanni_nikki.jpg 

http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/visiting/green_ernest.jpg

Diversity and Multicultural Affairs contact: Lynne Degitz, (919) 843-6085

News Services contacts: Print, L.J. Toler, (919) 962-8589; broadcast, Karen Moon, (919) 962-8595