Read-In at the Libraries:
Celebrating Black History Month
1:00 - 3:00pm, February 17, 2004
Main Library Lobby, West Wing

In celebration of Black History Month, the Michigan State University Libraries are sponsoring a literature read-in program, "Stories/Historias: the Power of the Pen," on Tuesday, February 17, 2004, 1:00 - 3:00 in the Cesar Chavez Collection (Main Library, first floor west wing).

Oral tradition provides the foundation of Black literature. Black writers have harnessed the oral method in creating a rich written literary tradition that fights oppression, expresses humanity, retells history, and inspires future generations. The "Read-In" program aims to fully unleash the power of the pen by bringing to life the written words of these authors in the spoken word.

Special reader-guests include Earle Robinson, host of WKAR sport radio show; East Lansing Attorney and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority member Constance Ross, and Folu Ogundimu, MSU Professor of Journalism, who will read 10-minute excerpts from their favorite authors. The literature of Langston Hughes, Ralph Ellison, Donald Goines, Chinua Achebe, Virginia Hamilton, among others, will be featured.

For additional information, contact: Diana Rivera, (517) 432-6123, ext. 252, or Tama Hamilton-Wray, (517) 505-3497.

Read-In Schedule:
Moderator: Jeff Wray, Professor, Deparment of English

1:00pm
Kimani Hamilton-Wray, Glencairn Elementary, E. Lansing
Reading a selection from Virginia Hamilton's The People Could Fly: American Black Folktales

1:15pm
Ronald de Suze, Graduate Student, American Studies
Reading from George Lamming's In the Castle of My Skin

1:30pm
Cije Kendrick, Undergraduate, MSU Spartan Soul
Reading from Donald Goines' Black Girl Lost

1:45pm
Cookie Whitaker, MSU Jazz Studies Program
Reading poetry selections by Langston Hughes

2:00pm
J. Theodore Jones, Retired
Reading from Gil Scott Heron's The Revolution Shall Not be Televised and other selections from Henry Louis Gates, Jr.'s The Norton Anthology of African American Literature

2:15pm
Constance Y. Ross, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority member & East Lansing Attorney
Reading from J. California Cooper's Homemade Love

2:30pm Folu Ogundimo, Professor, Communication Arts & Sciences
Reading from Chinua Achebe's Anthills of the Savannah

2:45pm
Earle Robinson, WKAR-AM Radio Host, "Sports Talk"
Reading the Prologue from Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man

3:00pm
Closing comments by Representative (Reverend) Michael Murphy

Photo:  Consuelo Kanaga