Providence, RI--Providence College's Balfour Center for Multicultural Affairs recently launched a new Diversity and Social Justice Speaker Series initiative that is designed to bring to campus prominent scholars, speakers, or performers who have gained recognition for their work in the areas of diversity and/or social justice. Four of the presentations will take place during the fall 2007 semester, with a fifth presentation planned the spring. All are open to the College community.

The first presenter, award-winning author Toi Derricotte, will give a reading of her poetry, memoir, and essays on October 25, 2007. A professor of English at the University of Pittsburgh, Derricotte has published four books of poetry in which she explores the experience of black women and issues of identity.

Derricotte is the author of Tender (1997) which won the 1998 Paterson Poetry Prize; Captivity (1989); Natural Birth (1983); and The Empress of the Death House (1978). She is also the author of a literary memoir, The Black Notebooks (W.W. Norton, 1997), which won the 1998 Annisfield-Wolf Book Award for Non-Fiction.

The remainder of the Diversity and Social Justice Speaker Series is as follows:

• On Friday, November 9, Dorothy Roberts will present "Killing the Black Body." Roberts has written and lectured extensively on the interplay of gender, race, and class in legal issues including bioethics and child welfare. She is a professor at the Northwestern University School of Law. She is a faculty fellow of the Institute for Policy Research and a faculty affiliate of the Joint Center for Poverty Research.
• On Thursday, November 15, Dr. Peggy McIntosh will present "Power and Privilege in Higher Education." McIntosh is a feminist and anti-racist activist. She is associate director of the Wellesley College Center for Research on Women. She is also a speaker, founder, and co-director of the National S.E.E.D. (Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity) Project on Inclusive Curriculum.
• On Thursday, December 6, filmmaker Byron Hurt will present "Beyond Beats and Rhymes." Hurt is an anti-sexist activist and long-time gender violence prevention educator. He is a founding member and served for over five years as associate director of the Mentors in Violence Prevention program. He is also the former associate director of the First Gender Violence Prevention Program in the U.S. Marine Corps.
• On Sunday, March 16, Helena Maria Viramontes will present "Reading Award- Winning Short Stories." Viramontes is an author who has won critical acclaim for her masterful depiction of Chicano culture. She is an assistant professor of English at Cornell University.

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