NEWS RELEASE DATE: Jan. 26, 2010 FOR USE: Now CONTACT: Steve Quakenbush

PUBLIC WELCOME FOR AFRICAN-AMERICAN READ-IN FEB. 8 AT GCCC
Black History Month literary event honors memory of GCCC student Kevin Wilson

Southwest Kansans are welcome to attend and participate in Garden City’s third annual African-American Read-In Feb. 8 at Garden City Community College. The literary and commemorative event is taking place as part of the national observance of Black History Month and in memory of GCCC student Kevin Wilson. The come and go gathering is scheduled from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the portico of GCCC’s Beth Tedrow Student Center, sponsored by the campus Black Student Union chapter and the GCCC English Department. Volunteers from the campus and community will take turns reading aloud throughout the day from prose and poetry selections by African-American writers, according to Eugenia Eberhart, English instructor and organizer. Books will be provided, but people who attend are also welcome to bring African-American selections of their own to read. The event is taking place for the third consecutive year at GCCC, but colleges, universities, churches and libraries have observed the tradition nationally for the past two decades. During the dates of Feb. 1-28, approximately one million U.S. readers are expected to share works this year by Maya Angelou, Alice Walker, James Weldon Johnson, Langston Hughes, August Wilson, Alex Haley and others, as well as Walter Mosley, John Edgar Wideman, Martin Luther King, Jr., Fredrick Douglas, W. E. B. DuBois, James Baldwin, C.C. Packer and Ishmael Reed, as well as President Barrack Obama.

REMEMBERING KEVIN WILSON

In addition to joining the national observance, organizers at GCCC chose the local event to honor the memory of Wilson, a student from Valdosta, Ga., who died of an unexpected seizure in his GCCC residence hall room on Feb. 9, 2008. No reservations or registration are required. Admission and refreshments are free. Eberhart is serving as read-in host in conjunction with the National Council of Teachers of English and the International Reading Association, which has endorsed the event throughout the U.S. Anyone with questions may reach Eberhart at 620-276-0355.