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CELEBRATING 25 YEARS OF LITERATURE

HENRY LOUIS GATES, JR.

FOREMOST SCHOLAR OF AFRICAN AMERICAN STUDIES, TO BE GIVEN THE 2009 EMPIRE STATE ARCHIVES AND HISTORY AWARD

NYS Writers Institute, October 26, 2009
7:30 p.m. Presentation | The Egg, Empire State Plaza, Albany

CALENDAR LISTING:
Henry Louis Gates, Jr., the nation’s preeminent scholar of African American Studies, will be given the 2009 Empire State Archives and History Award on Monday, October 26, 2009 at 7:30 p.m. in The Egg, Empire State Plaza, downtown Albany.  As part of the program, Dr. Gates will be interviewed by noted Lincoln scholar Harold Holzer. Tickets are $10 and may be obtained from the Egg Box Office at (518) 473-1845. The event is sponsored by the New York State Archives Partnership Trust, CSEA, The History Channel, Time Warner Cable, and the New York State Writers Institute.

PROFILE
The Archives Partnership Trust, CSEA, The History Channel, Time Warner Cable and the New York State Writers Institute will present an engaging evening of conversation between preeminent African American Studies scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and leading Lincoln scholar Harold Holzer. Gates will also be awarded the 2009 Empire State Archives and History Award of the Archives Partnership Trust.

A central figure in the field of African American Studies, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. is one of America’s most widely recognized public intellectuals. Winner of a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship in 1981, he was named one of “Time” magazines 25 most influential Americans in 1997. He appears frequently on network television as a commentator on national affairs and matters of race.

Gates is the author or editor of more than 70 books that have helped define the discipline of African American Studies, including “The Signifying Monkey” (1988), winner of the American Book Award; “Loose Canons: Notes on the Culture Wars” (1992); “The Future of Race” (1996, with Cornel West); “The Norton Anthology of African American Literature” (1996); “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Black Man” (1997); “The African American Century” (2000); and “The Trials of Phillis Wheatley” (2003). He is the editor of the new eight-volume “African American National Biography” (2008-9, coedited with Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham), and of the five-volume encyclopedia, “Africana” (1999, expanded edition 2005, with K. Anthony Appiah).

Gates wrote, produced and hosted the multi-part PBS documentary, “African American Lives” (2006 and 2008), the first series to employ genealogy and genetic science to provide an understanding of African American history. In 2007, a related one-hour documentary, “Oprah’s Roots: An African American Lives Special,”  aired on PBS. A companion volume to the series, “In Search of Our Roots: How 19 Extraordinary African Americans Reclaimed Their Past,” was published in 2009. PBS aired his newest documentary, “Looking for Lincoln,” in February 2009.

Since 1991, Gates has taught at Harvard University where he is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and the Director of the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research. He also serves as Editor-in-Chief of the Oxford African American Studies Center of Oxford University Press, and of “The Root,” an online magazine dedicated to coverage of African American news and culture.

In advance of the program, a ticketed reception to honor Gates will be held. To learn more, contact Grazia Yaeger at (518) 474-1228. Proceeds will benefit the New York State Archives and Archives Partnership Trust.

For additional information, contact the Writers Institute at 518-442-5620 or online at https://www.albany.edu/writers-inst.