Serving Boone, Blowing Rock, Banner Elk, and other towns of the North Carolina High Country | Founded 05-05-05

April 12, 2007 issue


Speak Truth to Power Author Kerry Kennedy
Visits Lees-McRae April 16

Story by Ron Fitzwater

Noted human rights activist and author of Speak Truth to Power: Human Rights Defenders Who are Changing Our World, Kerry Kennedy will visit the campus of Lees-McRae College on Monday, April 16.

At 2:00 p.m., Kennedy will address students and the community about her life as an international human rights activist and the lessons she learned from her father the late Senator Robert F. Kennedy.

From 7:00 to 8:15 p.m. the play Speak Truth to Power will be presented under the direction of Lees-McRae performing arts director Janet Speer. A question and answer period paneled by Kennedy, Jane Stephenson founder of the New Opportunity for Women and Middle East expert Curt Ryan will follow the play.

Kennedy began working in the field of international human rights in 1981 after investigating abuses committed by U.S. immigration officials against El Salvadorian refugees. In 1988, Kennedy established the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights. The center is dedicated to ensuring the protection of rights identified in the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights and provides an ongoing base of support to leading human rights defenders around the world. The center works to uncover and publicize human rights abuses such as torture, repression of free speech, child labor, and ethnic violence. As an advocacy agency, the center urges Congress and the president’s administration to highlight human rights in foreign policy.

Kennedy works with various organizations in the field of human rights. She is Chair of the Amnesty International Leadership Council and a judge for the Reebok Human Rights Awards. Additionally, Kennedy serves on the boards of directors of the International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life at Brandies University, Human Rights First, Inter-Press Service in Rome, Italy the Bloody Sunday Trust in Northern Ireland and the Editorial Board of Advisors of the Buffalo Human Rights Law Review, to name a few.

For additional information contact Meghan Wright, at 828-898-8729.

Want To Go?

What: Kerry Kennedy Address
Date: Monday, April 16
Time: 2:00 p.m. 
Location: Hayes Auditorium, Lees-McRae College
Cost: Free

 

ASU Plans Speak Truth to Power Events

In conjunction with Kerry Kennedy’s appearance at Lees-McRae College, Appalachian has planned two complementary events: a photo exhibit and a talk by Helen Lewis on that focuses on speaking truth to power in Appalachia.

Speak Truth to Power Photography Exhibit on Display through May 11

Appalachian’s Belk Library and the Center for Judaic, Holocaust and Peace Studies are hosting the Speak Truth to Power photography exhibit through Friday, May 11.

Speak Truth to Power is a global initiative to aid the fight for international human rights. It is a program of the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights that honors human rights defenders, investigates and publishes reports on human rights conditions and campaigns to heighten awareness of these issues.

The exhibit is located on the fourth floor of ASU’s Carol Grotnes Belk Library and features 35 silver gelatin prints of dramatic portraits that the late photojournalist Eddie Adams took on location in five continents over a two-year period. Adams was the recipient of more than 500 awards in photography, including a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage during the Vietnam War.

The portraits include those of Vaclav Havel, Baltasar Garzón, Marian Wright Edelman, the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Elie Wiesel and Oscar Arias. The portraits are accompanied by profiles excerpted from the companion book.

For more info about the exhibit, contact Mike Murphy at 828-262-4973.

Speak Truth to Power in Appalachia April 24

Helen Lewis will present a program on Speak Truth to Power in Appalachia on Tuesday, April 24, at 4:00 p.m. in Belk Library Room 421. The program is free and open to the public. Lewis taught the very first Appalachian Studies courses ever offered while she was at Clinch Valley College, now the University of Virginia at Wise, in the 1970s. She served as director of the Appalachian Center at Berea College in the early 1990s. Lewis lives in North Georgia where she directs oral history projects for the Byron Herbert Reece Society and for Fannin County. For more info, call 828-262-4973.

Want To Go?

What: Speak Truth to Power/Panel Discussion
Date: Monday, April 16
Time: 8:15 p.m.
Location: Hayes Auditorium, Lees-McRae College
Cost: Free