Arizona State University: Journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones To Deliver Annual Lecture On Race Relations At ASU

Press release from Arizona State University:

Kirsten Kraklio

April 8, 2021

Nikole Hannah-Jones, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and creator of the landmark 1619 Project, will be the featured speaker at Arizona State University’s 26th annual A. Wade Smith Memorial Lecture on Race Relations.

Hannah-Jones covers racial injustice for The New York Times Magazine and has spent years chronicling the way official policy has created and maintains racial segregation in housing and schools. She has written extensively on the history of racism, school resegregation and the disarray of hundreds of desegregation orders, as well as the decadeslong failure of the federal government to enforce the landmark 1968 Fair Housing Act.

Award-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones will be the featured speaker at the A. Wade Smith Memorial Lecture on Race Relations on April 20.
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The award-winning reporter — who has been honored with a MacArthur Genius Grant, a Peabody, a Polk and a National Magazine Award — will deliver her lecture at The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences’ virtual event at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 20.

The A. Wade Smith Memorial Lecture on Race Relations was created in 1995 to perpetuate the work of a man who had devoted his life to the idea of racial parity. As professor and chair of sociology at Arizona State University, A. Wade Smith worked tirelessly to improve race relations on the ASU campus and within the greater community. When he died of cancer at the age of 43, his wife, family members and friends made memorial gifts to establish and fund this lecture series.

“Last fall, Arizona State University President Michael Crow committed the university to increase the support of The College’s annual A. Wade Smith Lecture series,” said Patrick Kenney, dean of The College. “For more than two decades, this featured event has welcomed a distinguished guest to our ASU community to discuss important issues of race and society. We are grateful for the additional support and the opportunity to welcome Nikole Hannah-Jones as this year’s featured speaker.”

Who: Nikole Hannah-Jones

When: 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 20

Where: Online. Register for the virtual event here.

The event is free and open to the public.

Zócalo Public Square has a new sponsor for its 2021 Zócalo book and poetry prize award ceremony to be held as a virtual event on May 20. 

Screenwriter and Los Angeles philanthropist Tim Disney has gifted $20,000 to support this year’s prize event, which recognizes a nonfiction book that best enhances understanding of community and social cohesion, and the poem that best describes human connectedness to place. 

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“We received more than 200 entries for our book prize and over 500 poetry submissions,” said Moira Shourie, executive director of Zócalo. “Mr. Disney’s generous support allows us to reach a wider audience and bring people together to celebrate the work of scholars and poets that we will recognize at the 2021 Zócalo prize event.”

The contribution is the largest individual sponsorship for these prizes in the 11-year history of this signature Zócalo event and for Disney, a longtime supporter of the creative arts, literature and philanthropic organizations, the time couldn’t be more right to shine a light on the cornerstone of Zócalo’s public mission.

“To be a conscious human in our modern world is to be adrift on a flood tide of information — some of it true and relevant; much of it false and toxic,” Disney said. “Artists and writers help us make sense and meaning of it all. The Zócalo book and poetry prize celebrates this most essential of human acts. I am happy and proud to support this year's event and congratulate the winners.”

Disney will present the winners of this year’s book and poetry prizes during a virtual event that will be livestreamed on several digital platforms on May 20. Over the last year, Zócalo’s online events have attracted national and international audiences from cities as close by as Santa Monica, California, and Phoenix to countries as far away as Australia and India. 

Tim Disney is the son of Roy E. Disney, former executive of the world-renowned Walt Disney Company co-founded by Tim’s grandfather Roy O. Disney and granduncle Walt Disney. Tim has served on the CalArts Board of Trustees since 1993 and was named chairman of the board in 2014. He is also a board member at the Southern California Institute of Architecture. 

Founded in Los Angeles in 2003, Zócalo Public Square is an ASU Knowledge Enterprise. Zócalo connects people to ideas and to one another by examining essential questions in an accessible, broad-minded and democratic spirit. It pursues its mission by convening events and by publishing ideas journalism syndicated to 290 media outlets worldwide.

This press release was produced by Arizona State University. The views expressed here are the author’s own.