Activist Angela Davis to speak

[2 articles]

Activist Angela Davis to speak at SCSU

http://www.sctimes.com/article/20090215/NEWS01/102150016/1009

Times staff report
February 15, 2009

Political activist, author and professor Angela Davis is scheduled to
speak next month at St. Cloud State University as part of the
university's celebration of Black History Month.

Davis, who is a professor in the History of Consciousness Department
at the University of California-Santa Cruz, will present "Feminist
Change: A New Era" on March 4.

Davis will also discuss her life as a writer, scholar and activist.

Davis was a social activist in the 1970s, a member of the Communist
Party USA and associated with the Black Panthers. She has written
five books, including "Are Prisons Obsolete?" She serves as the
University of California presidential chair in African-American and
Feminist Studies.

Davis became known in the early 1970s when she was removed from her
teaching position at UCLA because of her social activism and her
links with the Black Panthers.

Davis was the target of an FBI investigation into the killing of a
Marin County judge. She was arrested, jailed, tried and found not
guilty. She frequently speaks against racism and is outspoken in her
opposition to prisons and the death penalty.

Davis' 7 p.m. presentation at St. Cloud State is open to the public and free.

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Civil rights activist Angela Davis to give lecture at WSU

http://xeniagazette.1upmonitor.com/main.asp?SectionID=2&SubSectionID=4&ArticleID=162982&TM=5919.222

2/12/2009

FAIRBORN ­ Feminist scholar, writer and social activist Angela Davis
will give a free, public lecture at Wright State University on
Monday, Feb. 23, at 7:30 p.m. as part of the 2008-09 Presidential
Lecture Series. The series was developed to advance human justice and
promote the university's commitment to creating a diverse university
community and learning environment. The theme for the 2008-09 series
is "Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Academic Inquiry."

Through her activism and scholarship over the last several decades,
Angela Davis has been deeply involved in our nation's quest for
social justice. Her work as an educator ­ both at the university
level and in the larger public sphere ­ has always emphasized the
importance of building communities of struggle for economic, racial
and gender equality.

A spokesperson for civil rights, Davis has focused most recently on
the country's "prison industrial complex" and its correlations to a
vicious cycle of socioeconomic status, education and income that lead
to increased imprisonment for African Americans. A former member of
the Communist Party USA, and former associate of the Black Panther
Party for Self-Defense and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee during the civil rights movement, Davis draws upon her own
experiences in the early 1970s as a person who spent 18 months in
jail and on trial after being on the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted List."

The author of eight books, including Women, Race and Class, Abolition
Democracy, and Are Prisons Obsolete?, Davis has lectured throughout
the United States, as well as in Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia and
South America.

Davis spent 15 years at the University of California Santa Cruz as a
professor of history of consciousness, an interdisciplinary Ph.D.
program, and professor of feminist studies. Prior to that, her
teaching career took her to San Francisco State University, Mills
College, and UC Berkeley, as well as UCLA, Vassar, the Claremont
Colleges, and Stanford University. She recently retired from UC Santa Cruz.

Davis is on the executive board of the Women of Color Resource
Center, a San Francisco Bay Area organization that emphasizes popular
education of and about women who live in conditions of poverty. She
also works with Justice Now, which provides legal assistance to women
in prison and advocates for abolishing imprisonment as the dominant
strategy for addressing social problems.

Davis' lecture is presented in partnership with the Wright State
University Women's Center as part of Women's History Month. Prior to
Davis's visit to campus, the Wright State Women's Center will host a
public viewing of the film Our Friend Angela, a Soviet film report
highlighting her controversial visit to the U.S.S.R. with friends
Kendra and Franklin Alexander. Discussion will follow. The film
viewing will be held from noon to 1 p.m. today in the Multicultural
Lounge, room 161 Millett Hall.

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