Learn what's on Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Spike Lee's mind when he delivers the 17th annual Martin Luther King, Jr., Convocation Address at Loyola University Maryland on Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2010. The event begins at 7 p.m. in Reitz Arena on Loyola's North Charles Street campus.
"Spike Lee's films take a critical look at issues that speak to the heart of Loyola's Jesuit mission and our enduring commitment to community and social justice," said Martha Wharton, assistant vice president for academic affairs and diversity. "The way he confronts difficult questions of race and gender relations, in particular, forces us to engage directly in sometimes uncomfortable, but truly essential, dialogue on these challenging topics."
Born Shelton Jackson Lee in Atlanta in 1957, producer, director, writer, and actor Spike Lee made his first amateur film at age 20. He completed his first student film while attending Morehouse College. Lee later graduated from New York University Film School, where his thesis film Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads, won a Student Academy Award.
Many of Lee's films, which include She's Gotta Have It, Do the Right Thing, 4 Little Girls, Malcolm X, Mo' Better Blues, Inside Man, Summer of Sam, and She Hate Me, are provocative examinations of race relations, political issues, and urban crime and violence. Lee received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay for Do the Right Thing, and one for Best Feature Documentary for 4 Little Girls, a piece about the 1963 16th Street Baptist Church bombing.
His 2006 HBO documentary, When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts, explored life in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Loyola has sponsored a Martin Luther King, Jr., Convocation since 1993. Previous speakers include author and University of Pennsylvania professor Michael Eric Dyson, singer Bernice Johnson Reagon, and writer Octavia Butler.
The event includes a question-and-answer session. General admission tickets are $30 and are available through Ticketmaster at 800-551-7328 or www.ticketmaster.com. Tickets for Loyola community members and students from other institutions are $18 each and are available through the Loyola box office at 4501 N. Charles Street. Tickets for groups of 20 or more are $15 each and can also be purchased through the Loyola box office.
Free overflow parking is available at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen with shuttle service to and from the University. An hourly fee lot is available on Bunn Drive.
For more information, visit Loyola's MLK Convocation Web site.
For more information or questions regarding this story, contact Media Relations Manager Nick Alexopulos at nalexopulos@loyola.edu or 410-617-5025.