Page 11 - 2-20-15 Friday's Edition

Local
Poet Laureate James Tokley To Take Part
Black, Brown & College Bound
In Airport’s Black History Program
Hillsborough Community College is hosting the 9th Black, Brown and College Bound Summit February 19- 21, 2015 (Thursday-Satur- day) at the Tampa Marriott Waterside Hotel.
The events begin Thurs- day morning with a host of conference events and speakers.
The 2015 summit theme is “Turning the Page: Trans- forming the African Ameri- can and Latino Male Experiences in Higher Edu- cation.”
Award winning, TV per- sonality, talk show host, actor, author, comedian Steve Harvey will be the keynote speaker for the Dr. Sylvia Marion Carley Lunch- eon on Friday.
Thursday, the day began with a host of concurrent pre-conference sessions. Pre-Conference Speakers in- cluded: Dr. Frank, Harris, III, J. Luke Wood, Ph.D., Duane O. Reid, Jr., Feli- cia Lorraine Ganther,
Tampa International Air- port’s Black History Month celebration on Friday, Feb. 20 includes a poetry reading by James Tokley, poet laureate for the City of Tampa and Hillsborough County.
His performance will in- clude existing pieces and at least two written specifically for this occasion.
“When you’re talking about an airport, especially from an African American perspective, you’re talking about another example of transportation that goes all the way back to a time when people were riding buses and some people had to sit in the back and some people sat up front. One of the poems I’m doing is based on that idea. It’s about the difference between riding the buses and all that that entails and flying in a plane and the attitudes that change from one epoch to an- other. The name of the piece is “Grandmom and the Airlines.”
A multitude of personal stories inspired the piece, Tokley said.
“The experience of flying, the experience of riding in an airplane, is still a very heady thing. And how you receive it depends upon the generation that you are from,” he said. “I took air flight and I placed it in what I consider an African American perspective, going back to the 60s and coming forward.”
He also plans to read an- other new work he has titled “Air Afrique,” which reflects on his experience as a passen- ger on that airline in 1975 in Senegal.
Tokley’s reading will come in between perform- ances by Tampa Bay’s own Bus Stop Band. The five-piece
JAMES TOKLEY
band plays a variety of high- energy Top 40, Soul, Funk and R & B. Preview the band on Facebook.com/thebusstop- band.
The festivities run from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. on Level 3 of the Main Terminal, near Air- side E. The event is free and open to the public.
In honor of Black History Month, the airport is currently featuring an art display by local artist and educator, Dr. Dallas Jackson, titled Words & Actions, Portraits of Martin and Maya. Among the exhibited pieces is a water- color of a multicultural group representing the ideals of Dr. Martin Luther King’s work and Maya Angelou’s words and audience in her poem “On the Pulse of Morning.”
The exhibit is on loan from the Dr. Carter G. Woodson African American History Mu- seum in St. Petersburg. The exhibit is located in the Main Terminal on Level 3 near the Sikorsky Elevators and is ac- cessible to all airport guests.
And through the end of the month, a montage honoring African American aviation pi- oneers, including Dr. Mae Jemison, Dr. Guion Blu- ford, and Bessie Coleman, the aviatrix for whom the air- port service road was re- named, appears on the visual display screens throughout the airport.
STEVE HARVEY ...Keynote speaker for the Dr. Sylvia Marion Carley Luncheon
Dr. Marco J. Barker, Dr. Michael Odu, and Dr. Irv- ing Pressley McPhail. The day ends with a recep- tion in the evening.
Others listed as featured speakers for the conference are: Dr. Raul G. Cuero, Dr. Shawn R. Harper, Dr. Damon A. Williams, Dr. Mark Anthony Neal, Dr. Luis Ponjuan, Dr. Marcus Bright, Michael Benitez, William Ca- ballero, Dr. Jerry Sue Thornton and Orestes
DR. SYLVIA MARION CARLEY ...Founder and convener, Black, Brown & College Bound Summit
Destrade.
Dr. Sylvia Marion
Carley is founder of the Black, Brown and College Bound Summit. She retired from Hillsborough Commu- nity College, where she served as campus President at the Ybor City Campus. Over the years, she served the campus as a faculty member and dean. She re- mains dedicated to the mis- sion of serving students to enhance their academic and social development.
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2015 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY PAGE 11-A