UpDate - Vol. 15, No. 21, Page 4
February 22, 1996
Cornel West to highlight African consciousness fest

     To establish a new framework, we need to begin with a frank
acknowledgment of the basic humanness and American-ness of each of us.
There is no escape from our interracial interdependence," Cornel West
writes in his best-selling book, Race Matters.
     West, one of the country's most visible intellectuals, will speak
as part of the University of Delaware's African Consciousness
Celebration, "Now More Than Ever Brothers and Sisters Must Come
Together." His talk, free and open to the public, is scheduled at 8
p.m., Thursday, Feb. 29, in Mitchell Hall.
     West has become a phenomenon over the last decade, especially
since the publication of Race Matters. He has been called "a bracing
antidote to Louis Farrakhan's hate-mongering" and has been praised for
delivering a message that "in these post-O.J. times seems to attain
the impossible: to transcend race without skirting our current racial
divisions."
     He is professor of African-American studies and the philosophy of
religion at Harvard University. Newsweek has called him "a prophet
with attitude," but he is most widely lauded for his faith that what
links people is often more meaningful than what separates them.
     West received his undergraduate degree from Harvard, graduating
magna cum laude in three years' time. He received his master's and
doctoral degrees from Princeton and served as the director of the Afro-
American studies program there beginning in 1988 until joining Harvard
in 1994.
     His work, influenced by traditions as diverse as the Baptist
Church and the Black Panthers, seeks to revive the best of liberalism,
populism and democratic socialism. West is the author of eight other
books, including Keeping the Faith and Jews and Blacks: Let the
Healing Begin, written with Michael Lerner.
     Other events scheduled during the African Consciousness
Celebration include a bus trip to Washington, D.C., planned for
Saturday, March 2.
     The trip will include stops at the Black Wax Museum in Baltimore
and the Mary Bethune Museum and the Smithsonian's National Museum of
African Art.
     The bus will leave from the Center for Black Culture, 192 South
College Ave., at 7:30 a.m. Cost is $15 per person. The deadline is
Feb. 24.
     The celebration concludes with the play, What About Black Womyn?,
presented by Living the Dream Inc., scheduled for 7:30 p.m. on Monday,
March 11, in the auditorium of Pearson Hall. Cost is $3.
     The two-act play by James Chapman examines sexuality, "womynhood"
and AIDS. The dark comedy is based on the personal memoirs of Billie,
a transvestite; Ruth, a 22-year-old crack addict; and Naomi, a 40-year-
old widow. The play begins with the characters lamenting their
disappointments with men and life and ends with a heart-warming
"coming to terms." The resulting conflict brings home the cruelty and
unfairness of the AIDS crisis.
     For more information on any aspect of the African American
Consciousness Celebrations, contact the University of Delaware's
Center foe Black Culture at 831-2991.