News & Events

CUC welcomes social justice activist and commentator, Marc Lamont Hill to observe Martin Luther King Jr. Day

1/1/2012

Jan. 6, 2011―Concordia University Chicago hosts a day of events on Jan. 25 to honor and reflect on the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., including a talk by commentator, author and educator Dr. Marc Lamont Hill, who will discuss “Faith. Service. Action.”

All events are free, open to the public and will be held on Concordia’s campus, 7400 Augusta St., River Forest. Free, handicapped-accessible parking is available in the visitors’ lot north of the University parking structure off of Bonnie Brae Street.

The celebration will begin as the Rev. Paul Anderson, pastor at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Chicago, leads a service of praise at 11 a.m. in the Chapel of Our Lord. Anderson, along with his wife, founded of New Hope Ministries and New Hope Lutheran School. Prior to his arrival in Chicago, Anderson served at Holy Cross Lutheran Church in Philadelphia, Penn., and St. Matthew Lutheran Church in Lake Charles, La.

Dr. Hill will give the keynote address at 7 p.m. in the Chapel of Our Lord. One of the leading hip-hop generation intellectuals in the country, he is also the host of the nationally syndicated television show Our World with Black Enterprise, which airs Sunday mornings on TV One.

He has lectured widely and provides regular commentary for media outlets such as NPR, Washington Post, Essence magazine, and The New York Times and has been a regular guest on CNN, MSNBC, and The O’Reilly Factor.

Since 2009, Dr. Hill has been on the faculty of Columbia University as associate professor of education at Teachers College. He also holds an affiliated faculty appointment in African American Studies at the Institute for Research in African American Studies at Columbia University.

He is a founding board member of My5th, a non-profit organization devoted to educating youth about their legal rights and responsibilities. Dr. Hill is also a board member and organizer of the Philadelphia Student Union. Dr. Hill also works closely with the ACLU Drug Reform Project, focusing on drug informant policy. In addition to his political work, Dr. Hill continues to work directly with African American and Latino youth.

Dr. Hill is the author Beats, Rhymes, and Classroom Life: Hip-Hop Pedagogy and the Politics of Identity and The Classroom and the Cell: Conversations on Black life in America, as well as co-editor of three books.

For more information contact Laila McCloud, CUC director of multicultural/international student engagement, at (708) 209-3124 or laila.mccloud@cuchicago.edu.