Acclaimed Washington Post reporter Wil Haygood, whose award-winning book The Butler: A Witness to History was turned into a major motion picture starring Forest Whitaker and Oprah Winfrey, will serve as the keynote speaker of the Martin Luther King, Jr., Celebration, Education & Learning Week. His lecture is scheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 20 at Ira Allen Chapel at 4 p.m. with a book signing to follow at 5:30 p.m.
Tickets are now available free of charge to UVM students, faculty, and staff (one ticket with UVM ID) and will become available to the general public (one per person) on Jan. 16. They are limited and can be picked up during business hours at the Dudley H. Davis Center (1st floor Hoffman Information Desk) and at the Registrar’s Office Student Service Center Kiosk (third floor) in Waterman.
"I am so ecstatic to have Wil Haygood coming to UVM campus," said Dr. Wanda Heading Grant, event organizer and vice president for Human Resources, Diversity and Multicultural Affairs. "He represents the cultural changes in the US from segregation to Obama. How wonderful that he will be here as part of our tribute to Dr. King and share the journey of others and his. It's going to be a wonderful event for all."
The Haygood event, sponsored by President Tom Sullivan, the Department of Student Life and the Office of the Vice President for Human Resources, Diversity and Multicultural Affairs, highlights a series of events honoring Dr. King, starting Jan. 14 with a MLK Birthday Party in the Rosa Parks Room at the Davis Center. UVM Gives a Dollar, a community service fundraiser that supports local non-profits starts the same day and will include a donation of one dollar for every daily special purchased at Brennan's in the Davis Center.
Haygood’s already well established reputation as an award-winning reporter and author reached a worldwide audience with the simultaneous release of The Butler book and the award-winning motion picture of which Haygood is associate producer. The book is based on the life of Eugene Allen, a butler who served eight presidents from Harry Truman to Ronald Reagan. Haygood tracked down Allen and managed to create a portrait of his lifelong journey from his birth in 1919 on a southern plantation to his years of service in the White House.
President Obama, who Haygood had a hunch would win the presidency prompting him to write The Butler, said he “teared up thinking about not just the butlers who worked here in the White House, but an entire generation of people...." President Jimmy Carter described the film as “one of the best dramatizations of the civil rights movement I have seen.”
Prior to The Butler, Haygood wrote a trilogy of New York Times best-selling biographies about iconic 20th-century figures Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., Sammy Davis, Jr., and Sugar Ray Robinson. He also spent 17 years as the national and foreign correspondent for the The Boston Globe, where he was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. In 1990, while covering the civil war in Somalia, he was taken hostage by rebels and eventually released with the aid of Pakistani troops. In 2002, Haygood joined The Washington Post as a national writer and was one of the first journalists to make it into New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina struck.
Haygood, who was the first in his family to graduate college, was honored in 2013 with the prestigious Ella Baker Award with judges citing Haygood's literary career “for shedding a light on those who give much, but are little noticed.” He was awarded an honorary doctor of letters from his alma mater Miami University (Ohio) and will serve as the Karl and Helen Wiepking Visiting Distinguished Professor there in the spring of 2015, eventually becoming the Distinguished Scholar in the department of media, journalism and film.
Schedule of events
MLK Birthday Party
Wednesday, Jan. 14, 11 a.m., Rosa Parks Room, Dudley H. Davis Center.
UVM Gives a Dollar
Wednesday, Jan. 14 – Friday, Jan. 23.
Every dollar raised for this fundraiser will be invested in the work of Women Helping Battered Women, the Ronald McDonald House and the Chittenden County Emergency Food Shelf. The goal is for everyone in the UVM community to participate by giving a dollar. Donations can be made at the UVM Bookstore (Main Desk), Henderson's Cafe, CAT Pause, Given Courtyard, Waterman Student Service Center Kiosk (Registrar's Desk), and Human Resource Services (228 Waterman).
The Butler Film Screenings
Wednesday, Jan. 14, 11:30 a.m., Jost Foundation Room, Dudley H. Davis Center (lunch provided).
Thursday, Jan. 15, 6:30 p.m., Sugar Maple Ballroom, Dudley H. Davis Center (dinner provided).
Keynote Speaker Wil Haygood
Tuesday, Jan. 20, 4 p.m., Ira Allen Chapel.
Tickets are available free of charge starting on Jan. 12 to UVM students, faculty and staff (one ticket with UVM ID) and to the general public (one per person) on Jan. 16 at the Dudley H. Davis Center (1st floor Hoffman Information Desk) and at the Registrar’s Office Student Service Center Kiosk (3rd floor) in Waterman.
College of Medicine Health and Equity Lecture
Wednesday, Jan. 21, 5:30 p.m., Sullivan Classroom, Room 200, Larner Medical Education Center.
“Geography, HIV/AIDS and the War on Drugs in Black Chicago,” featuring speaker Rashad Shabazz, assistant professor of geography at the University of Vermont.
Giving Voice to the Pain: Black Lives Matter
Thursday, Jan. 22., 3:30 p.m., Ira Allen Chapel
“A time of reflection, discussion and movement.”
“Unnatural Causes: Place Matters” Documentary and Discussion
Thursday, Jan. 22, 5:30 p.m., Sullivan Classroom, Room 200, Larner Medical Education Center.
Terri Lyne Carrington Quartet – UVM/Flynn Partnership
Friday, Jan. 30, 8 p.m., Flynn Center for the Performing Arts.