The Syracuse University and greater Syracuse communities will come together in the
Carrier Dome on the evening of Sunday, Jan. 18, for the 24th Annual Martin Luther
King Jr. Celebration. This year's celebration, "Dare to Imagine a Better World," will
feature a keynote address by Eddie S. Glaude Jr., a professor and scholar of religion
and African American studies at Princeton University and senior fellow at The
Jamestown Project; performances by SU's Black Celestial Choral Ensemble and a
Syracuse community choir; verbal poetry; and the presentation of the 2009 Unsung
Heroes Awards.
This year's award recipients are Keith Alford, professor of social work in SU's College
of Human Ecology; Collin Capano, a graduate student in the physics department in
The College of Arts and Sciences; Ronald Denby, assistant dean for information
technology in SU's College of Law; and Helen Hudson, co-founder of the Syracuse
community group Mothers Against Gun Violence.
The day's events begin at noon with a Community Celebration at Tucker Missionary
Baptist Church, 515 Oakwood Ave. in Syracuse, sponsored by the Syracuse Inner
City Rotary Club and SU. The event will feature remarks by Glaude and a
performance by the Dr. Martin Luther King Elementary School Choir.
The evening celebration will be preceded by a "Conversation with Eddie S. Glaude
Jr." at 3 p.m. in Maxwell Auditorium. There, Glaude will discuss his book, "In A
Shade of Blue: Pragmatism and the Politics of Black America" (University of
Chicago Press, 2007).
Both the community event and the discussion are free and open to the public.
The evening program begins at 6:30 p.m. and is free and open to the public. Tickets
for the dinner, which precedes the program at 5:30 p.m., are $25 for the general
public and $13.75 for students without meal plans. Students with meal plans will be
charged for one dinner. For ticket information, call Hendricks Chapel at (315) 443-
5044.
Glaude is the William S. Tod Professor of Religion and African American Studies at
Princeton University. He is also a senior fellow at The Jamestown Project, a diverse,
action-oriented think tank of new leaders who reach across boundaries and
generations to make democracy real.
Prior to his appointment at Princeton, Glaude taught African American studies and
religion at Bowdoin College and Amherst College. He received his bachelor's degree
from Morehouse College and his master's degree and Ph.D. from Princeton.
Glaude is the author of "Exodus! Religion, Race and the Nation in Early 19th Century
Black America" (University of Chicago Press, 2000). The book received the Modern
Language Association's William Sanders Scarborough Book Prize for outstanding
scholarly study of black cultural life and/or literature. Glaude is also editor of "Is It
Nation Time? Contemporary Essays on Black Power and Black Nationalism"
(University of Chicago Press, 2002). This edited collection has been described as a
"standard reference for students and scholars of African American intellectual
history."
He has also co-edited, with Cornel West, "African American Religious Thought: An
Anthology" (Westminister John Knox Press, 2004), a text widely viewed as one of the
most important books published in African American religion in the last five years.
