Activist Angela Davis will be the keynote speaker at the 11th Annual MLK Tribute Event on Jan. 21, 2014, at 6 p.m. in the Peter W. Stott Center gymnasium.
The Office of Global Diversity & Inclusion and the MLK Planning Committee are hosting the event. Pre-event tickets are sold out, but the box office released an additional 200 tickets for Portland State students. Student admission is free.
“We are excited to be hosting Dr. Angela Davis as the keynote speaker for PSU’s 2015 MLK Tribute at such a critical time in our history,” said Interim Chief Diversity officer Charles Lopez. “The event is sold out, and 900 of the tickets went to PSU students. The remaining tickets went to faculty, staff, community partners, elected officials and prospective students from local high schools. Several PSU students will be featured as part of the program.”
Lopez said the event will be recorded for students unable to attend and can be rebroadcast for educational purposes.
Davis is a social justice activist working toward building communities dedicated to eradicating economic, racial and gender injustices. Her advocacy stems from her time spent in prison in the early ’70s. Davis was placed on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List for charges of which she was later acquitted.
She has dedicated much of her scholarship and activism toward prisoners’ rights and oppression in marginalized communities. Davis is a founding member of Critical Resistance, a group dedicated to dismantling the prison-industrial complex.
Patrick Villaflores, executive assistant to the Interim Chief Diversity Office, said, “I have so much respect for Angela Davis and her quest for social justice and addressing the intersections between race, class and gender.”
Villaflores continued by saying this event will bring 2,000 faculty, staff, students and community members together.
Davis is the Distinguished Professor Emerita of History of Consciousness, an interdisciplinary Ph.D. program, and of Feminist Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She has also taught at San Francisco State University, Mills College, UC Berkeley, UCLA, Vassar, the Claremont Colleges and Stanford University. Davis is the author of nine books. Her most recent book, Abolition Democracy, demonstrates her core advocacy principles on incarceration and racial discrimination.
“This event should serve not only as reflection and celebration of the life of Dr. King, but should be a transitional moment in all of our lives to begin the work of making his dream a reality for all people,” Tony Funchess, ASPSU multicultural affairs director, stated in an email.
Angela Davis’ presentation, “Living the Legacy: The Meaning of Freedom,” is one of the many events happening during the 11th Annual MLK Tribute Event.
Tickets for Davis’ presentation are available for students at the SMSU box office, online or by calling 503-725-3307. More MLK Tribute events are listed at pdx.edu/diversity.
