Alice Walker, Author of ‘The Color Purple,’ to Keynote Signs of Race Symposium at UA

Tuscaloosa, Ala. – Internationally known author Alice Walker, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the American Book Award for “The Color Purple,” will present the opening keynote lecture for “The Signs of Race Series: Women and Others, Racial and Gender Difference in Anglo-American Literature and Culture” at The University of Alabama.

Walker will speak March 17 at 7:30 p.m. in UA’s Morgan Auditorium. Her lecture is free and open to the public. The 27th Alabama Symposium — The Signs of Race Series will continue March 17-19 in the Ferguson Center Forum.

“Using historical, literary and philosophical approaches, Walker will address how her own activism and social community have been influenced by the power of nature, beauty and the human spirit,” said Dr. Rhoda E. Johnson, associate professor of women’s studies. “She will also discuss her latest novel, ‘Now is the Time to Open Your Heart’.”

Walker is the author of seven novels and a new collection of poems. Her books have been critically acclaimed and have been best sellers. Her novel “The Color Purple” was made into an internationally popular film directed by Steven Spielberg. Her books have sold over 10 million copies and have been translated into over two dozen languages.

The symposium will explore the complicated calculus of race, class and gender in the work of theorists, writers, historians and critics of Anglo-American and African-American literature.

“Original presentations from international scholars who have published influential work on issues of race and gender will be the focus of the symposium,” said Dr. Celia R. Daileader, associate professor of English.

Topics will include “Race, Gender and Sexuality in the Christian Right,” by Andrea Smith from the University of Michigan; “Writing, Home and Difference in Gloria Naylor’s Linden Hills” by Maxine Montgomery of Florida State University; “The Future of Feminism” by Vron Ware of Yale University; “Englishwomen in the Raj” by Indira Ghose of Free University of Berlin; and “African-American Women as Leaders” by Patricia S. Parker of the University of North Carolina.

Additional presenters include Carolyn Cooper from the University of the West Indies, Jamaica; Trudier Harris from the University of North Carolina; W. Lawrence Hogue from University of Houston; and Joyce Green MacDonald from the University of Kentucky.

The symposium will also feature a poetry reading by Harryette Mullen, winner of the Gertrude Stein Award in Innovative American Poetry, in conjunction with the Bankhead Visiting Writers Series. The reading will be March 18 at noon in the Ferguson Center Forum. It is free and open to the public.

The Alabama Symposium conveners are members of the UA faculty: Daileader, Johnson, and Dr. Amilcar Shabazz, associate professor and director of the African-American studies program.

Sponsors of the symposium include: the Alabama Humanities Foundation, the Bankhead Visiting Writers Series, Capstone International Center, Ferguson Center, the Hudson Strode Program in Renaissance Studies, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Distinguished Lecture Series, UA’s Office of the Dean of Students, UA’s College of Arts and Sciences, and the Women’s Resource Center.

Pre-registration for the symposium is encouraged. For a complete schedule and a downloadable registration form, go to www.as.ua.edu/english/symposium/series.htm or call 205/348-7950. Onsite registration begins at 8 a.m. on March 18 and 19. Fees are $20 for the general public and $5 for students. Both Walker’s opening lecture and Harryette Mullen’s poetry reading are free.