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Jeremiah J. White, director of the Philadelphia Development Partnership, and Jeffrey Johnson, national director of the NAACP’s Youth and College Program, will be among the featured speakers at Lafayette’s third annual Summit on Manhood April 6-7.
The summit, with the theme “Fighting for Our Future,” is sponsored by the Brothers of Lafayette, an organization of black students promoting unity through campus and community activities. The panelists will also include Fred Hord, professor of Black Studies at Knox College and the founder and executive director of the Association of Black Cultural Centers, and Katherine Olukemi Bankole, coordinator of the Africana Studies program in the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences at West Virginia University and director of WVU’s Center for Black Culture and Research.
The event chairperson is Landon J. Adams, a junior from Columbus, Ohio. For information, call the David A. Portlock Black Cultural Center, (610) 330-5819.
White will be the keynote speaker at the summit’s opening event, a dinner at 5:30 p.m. in the Bergethon Room, Marquis Hall. The banquet is free. Donations of $10.00 for adults and $5.00 for children will be accepted benefiting the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Project in Washington, D.C.
“We decided that the dinner would benefit the King memorial because the date almost coincides with the anniversary of his assassination on April 4, 1968,” Adams says. “It’s a way for the campus to honor Dr. King, because the holiday in January celebrating his birthday occurs while the students are away on winter break.”
For more information on making a contribution to the Washington, D.C., Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial Project Foundation, Inc., see the foundation’s web site, www.mlkmemorial.org.
Several workshops are scheduled for Saturday, April 7. The day will begin with check-in at 9:30 a.m. in the Farinon College Center. Three concurrent workshops will be held from 10-11:30 a.m. and again from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. The workshop titles are Alumni Panel on Professionalism; Surving College and Campus Change; and Spirituality. The NAACP’s Jeffrey Johnson will be the featured panelist in the workshop on Surving College and Campus Change.
From 1-2 p.m. there will be a lunch catered by Sugar Daddy’s Restaurant of Easton.
From 2-3:30 p.m. concurrent workshops will be held, one for men, led by Hord, and one for women, led by Bankole. Following the separate workshops, all participants will come together for a joint session from 3:30-5 p.m. in Keefe Hall Commons.
From 5-6 p.m. participants will enjoy a break during which they can gather at the David A. Portlock Black Cultural Center.
A closing forum will be held from 6-8 p.m. on the summit’s theme, “Fighting for Our Future,” featuring a panel of various facilitators of Saturday’s earlier sessions.
There will be a step show at 9 p.m. in the Williams Center for the Arts, sponsored by Recreation Services, the Association of Black Collegians, and the Lafayette Activities Forum. Scheduled to compete are teams from Easton Area High School; Shiloh Baptist Church, Easton; West Chester University, and Cheyney University. There will be an after-party from 10:30 p.m. to 2:30 a.m. in Allan P. Kirby Sports Center.
Jeremiah White has been director of the Philadelphia Development Partnership (PDP) for nine years. PDP is a private, nonprofit organization whose mission is to promote economic development in low and moderate income neighborhoods in the Greater Philadelphia region.
White has more than 25 years of experience in private sector companies, non-profit organizations, public institutions and start-ups. White, who holds a master’s degree in planning and administration, has played a key role in the creation and development of several organizations: as president of a private nonprofit health and social service organization widely applauded for its multipurpose culturally competent services to Philadelphia’s most needy and ethnically diverse residents; as president of a private nonprofit AIDS service organization and planning body; and as project manager of a real estate development team that initiated the financing and development of the Uptown Cultural Arts and Entertainment District. He serves on the boards of the Philadelphia Bankers’ Development Initiative, Friends of the Free Library, 21st Century League, and People of Color Conference.
Supporting the Brothers of Lafayette as cosponsors of the summit are several student organizations and administrative offices, including the Association of Black Collegians, Hispanic Society of Lafayette, Muslim Student Association, LINC, Nia, the Office of the President, Office of the Dean of Students, Office of Intercultural Development, and the Portlock Black Cultural Center.