(Posted January 9, 2018)

Courtesy: Keith Boykin

Courtesy: Keith Boykin

Huntingdon, Pa. – On Jan. 22, Juniata College will hold its 26th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Convocation. The event will feature a talk by Keith Boykin, a CNBC contributor, BET columnist and New York Times bestselling author, at 4 p.m. in the Rosenberger Auditorium at the Halbritter Center for the Performing Arts.

Boykin’s speech, “This Is Your Future, What Will You Do With It?” will address the impact that an individual can make through a better understanding of themselves, their intersectionality and the privilege that they wield in the worlds in which they live. Boykin’s presentation will show that embracing privileges and using them for the good of others can become a way to serve others.

“One thing Juniata holds dear is that we’re all learners,” says Caroline Gillich, associate director in Juniata’s office of diversity and inclusion and the head field hockey coach at the College. “We still have a lot to learn, so we want the community to bring their perspectives and create a broader conversation. We can all start to question ourselves and our own kinds of thinking through events like this convocation.”

Boykin is the founder and first board president of the National Black Justice Coalition, an American civil rights organization which primarily focuses on improving the lives of black gay, lesbian, transgender, queer and bisexual people. Because of this role, he has extensive experience speaking to small and large audiences, once delivering a speech to attendees at the Millennium March on Washington, D.C.

Each of Boykin’s four books has been nominated for a Lambda Literary Award, including his most recent book, For Colored Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow Is Still Not Enough, which won the American Library Association Stonewall Award for Nonfiction in 2013.

Boykin attended Dartmouth University in Hanover, New Hampshire, and Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He attended law school with President Barack Obama and served as a special assistant to President Bill Clinton in the White House. Boykin organized and participated in the first meeting in the U.S. between a sitting president and leaders of the LGBT community.

He has appeared on various national media programs such as Anderson Cooper 360, The O’Reilly Factor, The Tyra Banks Show, The Montel Williams Show, and the Tom Joyner Morning Show.

Juniata’s 26th annual Martin Luther King Convocation is part of the College’s Beyond Tolerance series. The series is composed of events occurring throughout the academic year that are open to all members of both the Juniata and Huntingdon communities. Each event presents an opportunity to advance Juniata’s institutional goal of creating a campus community of inclusiveness from the classroom to the residence hall room to the conference room. For more information on Beyond Tolerance events, visit: www.juniata.edu/diversity.

 

Written by Taylor Smallwood ’19 

Contact April Feagley at feaglea@juniata.edu or (814) 641-3131 for more information.