AUTHOR JEWELL PARKER RHODES TO GIVE LECTURE, WORKSHOP AT HU

Hampton, VA - Author Jewell Parker Rhodes will give a lecture on her novel "Douglass’ Women" as part of the Hampton University President’s Lecture Series and the Department of English’s Annual Read-In activities. Rhodes will speak Wednesday, March 31 at 6:30 p.m. in the Student Center Ballroom.

The lecture presentation, "History and the Creative Imagination," is free and open to the public as are other Read-In activities. The Annual Read-In is an interdisciplinary event in which the entire campus reads a novel and participates in lectures and other activities relating to the novel's content.

"Douglass’ Women," is a historical fiction novel about abolitionist Frederick Douglass and the complexities surrounding the relationships with his African-American wife Anna Murray Douglass and his decades’ long white mistress Ottilie Assing.

"Rhodes isn’t the first person to explore this topic, but she’s the only one to turn it into an historical account," said Dr. John Alewynse, chair of the Department of English.

The novel was awarded the 2003 American Book Award, 2003 Black Caucus of the American Library Association Award for Literary Excellence, the 2003 PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award, and was a finalist for the PEN Center USA Award in Fiction and for the Hurston-Wright Legacy Award.

Various discussions about the novel and its contrasting perspectives will be held in the Student Center Lounge on April 1. "Frederick Douglass: History, Philosophy and Leadership" will be discussed at 9:30 a.m. along with readings from Douglass’ speeches. "Hearth, Heart and Heresy in Douglass’ Women" will be held at 11 a.m.

At 12:30 p.m., "Language, Literature and Literacies: Douglass and Douglass’ Women" will be discussed. Also, at 2 p.m., The Hampton Players will present "The Drama of It All: Scenes from Douglass’ Women" also in the Student Center Lounge.

On March 31, Rhodes will give a creative writing workshop from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. in the Student Center Lounge. She is the chair in Creative Writing and Artistic Director of the Virginia G. Piper Center in Creative Writing at Arizona State University. Rhodes is also the author of Voodoo Dreams and Magic City.

For more information about the event, contact the Department of English at 757-727-5421.