“An Evening with John Singleton,” movie producer, director and screenwriter, will be presented at 7:30 p.m., Friday, April 19, in the Clayton Hall auditorium, as part of the Center for Black Culture’s Black Arts Festival 2002.

Singleton, whose movie credits include “Baby Boy,” “Rosewood,” “Higher Learning” and “Poetic Justice,” caught the attention of moviegoers and critics alike in 1991with his first film “Boyz N the Hood.” The movie, which explored the lives of four black youths growing up in South Central Los Angeles, resulted in Singleton becoming the youngest African-American filmmaker ever to receive Oscar nominations for best original screenplay and best director.

“Rosewood,’ a 1997 film starring Ving Rhames and Jon Voight, dramatizes a 1922 lynching and subsequent events in Florida that came to light in 1933, focusing on the lives of residents in the almost all-black Florida community.

In 2000, Singleton wrote, directed and produced “Shaft,” a remake of the 1971 classic hit by Gordon Parks.

“Baby Boy,” a 2001 film staring Tyrese Givson and Ving Rhames, has been described as a companion piece to “Boyz N the Hood,” and although it’s world is less violent and bleak, the characters who live in this neighborhood know that there is no guarantee that things will work out as they had hoped or planned.

Singleton, who also has directed television commercials for Coca Cola and AT&T with D.L. Hughley, is currently at work on a big-screen version of “Sinbad,” as well as “Flow,” a film about the twists and turns in the music business.

Singleton’s awards include the LAFCA New Generation Award in 1991, the MTV Movie Award for Best New Filmmaker in 1992, the New York Film Critics Award for Best New Director in 1991, and the Special Award for Directorial Debut of the Year in 1992.

Tickets for the April 19 event, which are available at all UD box offices, are $2 for the general public and free to UD faculty, staff and students. For ticket information, call UD1-HENS. For information, call the Center for Black Culture at 831-2991.

April 15, 2002