UAlbany Professors Ballard and Slade, Historian and Poet, Team up at UAlbany for Literary Reading April 26

Historian and novelist Allen B. Ballard.

Historian Allen B. Ballard and poet Leonard A. Slade Jr. are teaming up to give readings from their latest books on Tuesday, April 26, at 7 p.m. in the Performing Arts Center Recital Hall at the University at Albany on the uptown campus.

Ballard will read from his recently published autobiography, Breaching Jericho’s Walls (SUNY Press), and Slade will read selected poems from his book, The Season (Xulon Press), which is being sold in the U.K., Japan and India, as well as the U.S.

Ballard, who teaches Africana Studies and history at UAlbany, will make another appearance on Saturday, May  7, as part of a special Amtrak celebration of National Train Day in his hometown of Philadelphia. Ballard will discuss “The Great Migration of African Americans” from the rural south to the industrial north during the early 20th century via passenger and freight trains.  A former dean in the City University of New York system, Ballard earned his doctorate from Harvard and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa.

Slade, who teaches in the departments of Africana Studies and English, has published 21 books, including 15 books of poetry. He is a member of Sigma Tau Delta International English Honor Society and past National President of Alpha Kappa Mu Honor Society and of the Langston Hughes Society. Slade earned his doctorate from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Ballard and Slade have been honored for their service to UAlbany with the Collins Fellow award.

The event is free, open to the public and is sponsored by the departments of Africana Studies, History, English, and the Office of Multicultural Student Success.

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