Skip to main content
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • Videos
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Library
    • Research
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • |
  • Alumni
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
Sections
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • |
  • Alumni
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • Videos
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Library
    • Research
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit

NPR Host and Author Michele Norris to Keynote 30th Annual MLK Celebration

Friday, October 31, 2014, By Kelly Homan Rodoski
Share
speakers

Michele Norris, National Public Radio host and special correspondent and creator of the Race Card Project (which involves people constructing six-word essays about race, which they then write on postcards), will be the keynote speaker for Syracuse University’s 30th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration, “Remember. Celebrate. Act.” on Sunday, Jan. 18, 2015, in the Carrier Dome. The event is the largest University-sponsored event in the United States to celebrate King.

Michele Norris

Michele Norris

“We are thrilled and honored to have Michele Norris as our 30th anniversary keynote speaker,” says Sylvia Langford, associate vice president for student affairs and chair of the University Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Committee. “Her outstanding body of work epitomizes this year’s theme: ‘Remember. Celebrate. Act.’ Ms. Norris’ very relevant message to us will serve as a springboard for the work that lies ahead. Get ready to be moved to action!”

The evening program, which will include the presentation of the 2015 Unsung Hero Awards, music by a community choir and entertainment by student performers, begins at 5:30 p.m. and is free and open to the public. Dinner precedes the program at 4:30 p.m., doors open at 4 p.m. Tables ($300) and individual tickets ($30) for the general public will go on sale Dec. 1 and are available by contacting Ginny Yerdon at Hendricks Chapel at 315-443-5044 or gyerdon@syr.edu.

Student tickets are $15 for students without meal plans and one dinner charge for students with meal plans. Student tickets will also go on sale Dec. 1 and will be available at all residence hall main desks, at dining centers during meal times, at Hendricks Chapel and online at http://www.carrierdome.com (click on student tab) until Jan. 5. For questions, call Hendricks Chapel at 315-443-5044.

American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation and Communication Access Real-Time will be available at the event. To request dietary or other accommodations, contact Ginny Yerdon at Hendricks Chapel at 315-443-2901 or gyerdon@syr.edu by Monday, Jan. 12.

A MLK Community Celebration will be held on Saturday, Jan. 17, from noon-4 p.m. at Fowler High School, 227 Magnolia St. in Syracuse. Community youth will be honored at this celebration.

Norris is an award-winning journalist with more than two decades of experience. She previously served as co-host of NPR’s newsmagazine “All Things Considered,” public radio’s longest-running national program, with Robert Siegel and Melissa Block. Norris began hosting the program in December 2002 and stepped away from “All Things Considered” duties during the 2012 presidential campaign. While on sabbatical, Norris spent time traveling the country developing two successful initiatives: The Race Card Project and NPR’s “Backseat Book Club.”

In September 2010, Norris released her first book, “The Grace of Silence, A Memoir,” which focuses on how America talks about race in the wake of Barack Obama’s presidential election and explores her own family’s racial legacy. Using her memoir as a catalyst for conversation, Norris has addressed thousands of students through campus “One Book” programs, encouraging discussions about the history of race relations in the U.S.

Before joining NPR, Norris was a correspondent for ABC News from 1993-2002. As a contributing correspondent for the “Closer Look” segments on World News Tonight with Peter Jennings, she reported extensively on education, inner city issues, the nation’s drug problem and poverty. She has also reported for the Washington Post, Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times.

Norris has received many awards for her work, including the 2010 Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University Award for “The York Project: Race and the 2008 Vote” (co-hosted with Steve Inskeep); the 2009 Journalist of the Year award from the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ); and the NABJ’s 2006 Salute to Excellence Award for her coverage of Hurricane Katrina. She was honored with Ebony Magazine’s Eighth Annual Outstanding Women in Marketing and Communications Award in 2007 and was named one of Essence Magazine’s “25 Most Influential Black Americans” in 2009.

  • Author

Kelly Rodoski

  • Recent
  • Syracuse University Ranked in the Top 25 for Best Online Graduate Information Technology Programs by U.S. News & World Report
    Tuesday, January 26, 2021, By News Staff
  • WAER 88.3 FM Welcomes New Sports Director
    Tuesday, January 26, 2021, By Mary Kate Intaglietta
  • The State of the Immigration Courts
    Tuesday, January 26, 2021, By News Staff
  • Athlete, Activist Maya Moore Joins the Martin Luther King Jr. Virtual Event Series Jan. 27
    Tuesday, January 26, 2021, By News Staff
  • Health Promotion Advocate and Alumnus Sidney Lerner ’53 Remembered
    Tuesday, January 26, 2021, By News Staff

More In Uncategorized

“Can JC Penny Perform a Magic Act As It Emerges From Bankruptcy?”

Ray Wimer, professor of retail practice in the Whitman School, was interviewed for the International Business Times piece “Can JC Penny Perform a Magic Act As It Emerges From Bankruptcy?” Wimer, an expert on the retail industry, says that the…

“How the FBI is following a digital trail of evidence to track down capitol rioters.”

Mark Pollitt, adjunct professor in the School of Information Studies, was interviewed for the TODAY story “How the FBI is following a digital trail of evidence to track down capitol rioters.” Pollitt spent a thirty year career working for the…

“Did President rump’s Ban from Twitter Violate Free Speech? The experts say not exactly.”

Shubha Ghosh, the Crandall Melvin Professor of Law in the College of Law, was quoted in the Katie Couric Media piece “Did President rump’s Ban from Twitter Violate Free Speech? The experts say not exactly.” Ghosh, an expert in antitrust…

“People with disabilities desperately need the vaccine. But states disagree on when they’ll get it.”

Scott Landes, associate professor of sociology in the Maxwell School, was quoted in The Washington Post story “People with disabilities desperately need the vaccine. But states disagree on when they’ll get it.” Landes, an expert on the sociology of disability,…

Luvell Anderson writes “Whiteness Is the Greatest Racial Fraud”

Luvell Anderson, associate professor of philosophy in the College of Arts and Sciences, wrote commentary in the Boston Review titled “Whiteness Is the Greatest Racial Fraud.” Anderson, who studies the philosophy of race, uses the piece to discuss the concept…

Subscribe to SU Today

If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.

Connect With Us

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
Social Media Directory

For the Media

Find an Expert Follow @SyracuseUNews
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
  • @SyracuseU
  • @SyracuseUNews
  • @SUCampus
  • Social Media Directory
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Campus Status
  • Syracuse.edu
© 2021 Syracuse University News. All Rights Reserved.