eInside Events

Celebrating Kent State Entrepreneurs: The Blackstone LaunchPad Recognition Breakfast and Student Expo

Jeff Hoffman, co-founder of Color Jar and founding team member of Priceline.com, to speak at April 1 event

Jeff Hoffman, co-founder of Color Jar
and founding team member of
Priceline.com, will serve as keynote
speaker at the first Blackstone LaunchPad
Recognition Breakfast and Student Expo
on April 1 in the Kent Student Center
Ballroom.

Kent State University's thriving entrepreneurial culture will be highlighted at the first Blackstone LaunchPad Recognition Breakfast and Student Expo on April 1 in the Kent Student Center Ballroom.

The breakfast will serve as an opportunity to recognize the achievements of Kent State entrepreneurs, past, present and future, as well as showcase current Blackstone LaunchPad student entrepreneurs in the accompanying student expo where students will be able to network, sell their products or services and discuss their businesses with event attendees.

'"We welcome students, faculty, staff, alumni and community members to join us as we celebrate the success of our client entrepreneurs and recognize our many university and community partners," says Julie Messing, executive director of entrepreneurship initiatives at Kent State’s Blackstone LaunchPad. "Blackstone LaunchPad at Kent State has expanded beyond our expectations during the first 18 months of our program. We are thrilled to recognize our partners in launching this collaborative program that is reaching across the university and feature our client businesses who have benefited from our services.”

The featured keynote speaker for the event is Jeff Hoffman, co-founder of Color Jar and founding team member of Priceline.com, who serves as a venture coach in the regional Northeast Ohio Blackstone LaunchPad Venture Coaching program coordinated by the Burton D. Morgan Foundation.

“As a mentor in the Blackstone LaunchPad program, I am so impressed with the program's open and collaborative approach,” Hoffman says. “The program serves students of all majors and hosts many innovative events that help students who have never considered entrepreneurship to see the benefits of creating their own companies and designing the dreams jobs of their future. Kent State students already have that ‘get it done’ attitude, and the LaunchPad program helps them accelerate down the path to an amazing future.”

The breakfast is free and open to the public, but guests are required to register at www.eventbrite.com/e/kent-state-entrepreneurial-expo-awards-tickets-9207837891 in order to attend. The doors open at 7:30 a.m. with opening remarks and the keynote address at 8 a.m., followed by the awards presentations at 8:45 a.m. and the student expo at 9:15 a.m.

Blackstone LaunchPad at Kent State promotes entrepreneurship as a viable career path. Through meetings, mentoring, workshops and events, Blackstone LaunchPad helps Kent State students, faculty, staff and alumni to create new businesses or grow existing start-ups in Northeast Ohio.

For more information about Kent State’s Blackstone LaunchPad, visit www.kent.edu/blackstonelaunchpad.

Cleveland Chef Rocco Whalen to Speak at Kent State About His Journey, Love for Inventing New Cuisine

Chef Rocco Whalen of Cleveland’s
Fahrenheit restaurant will speak about
his journey as a chef and his love for
inventing and sustaining American cuisine
on Thursday, April 17, at 4 p.m. in the
Ritchie Hall Theatre.

Former “Fat Chef” Rocco Whalen of Cleveland’s Fahrenheit restaurant will speak about his journey as a chef and his love for inventing and sustaining American cuisine on Thursday, April 17, at 4 p.m. in the Ritchie Hall Theater at Kent State University. This free event is open to the public and is sponsored by the Schwebel Baking Company. It is organized by the faculty and students in the Hospitality Management program at Kent State.

Whalen credits his mother for his love of cooking. He has evolved from his mother’s kitchen to owning several restaurants in the Cleveland area. After five years of cooking with Wolfgang Puck at nearly every one of his restaurants on the West Coast, to a stint as executive chef at Blue Point Grille in Cleveland in 2001, he jumped at the chance to open his own restaurant, Fahrenheit, in September 2002, at the age of 24. From the get-go, Fahrenheit has been an enormous success with a packed house on a regular basis, helping Whalen emerge as one of the best chefs in Cleveland. He has been busy showing off his culinary skills with Rosie & Rocco's Italian Eateries inside the Horseshoe Casino and FirstEnergy Stadium, and Rocco's at the Q inside Quicken Loans Arena.

Whalen’s latest addition, “Fahren-Lite,” are new menu items that are light in calories and fat; a deliberate spin-off of Whalen’s role in the Food Network show, “The Fat Chef,” that highlighted what he did to overcome his struggle with obesity. He lost 130 pounds and is updating his menus to fit his new lifestyle.

Whalen had been asked to open a spectacular new restaurant located atop a 20-story, mixed-use high-rise, dubbed Skye (SKYEcondos.com) in downtown Charlotte. Fahrenheit-Charlotte opened there on March 3. For more information about Whalen, visit www.chefroccowhalen.com.

For more information about a bachelor’s degree in hospitality management or a master’s degree in hospitality and tourism management, visit www.kent.edu/ehhs/hm.

For more information about the 2014 Schwebel Lecture, call 330-672-2012.

The Scholarly Process of Constructing a Better Learning Environment

Faculty members may experiment over a series of semesters to identify the best strategies that enhance student learning. Kent State University’s Faculty Professional Development Center will offer an interactive session that will feature faculty colleagues from the Teaching Scholars Program outlining how the development of a scholarly teaching project helped them to become more methodological, proactive, deliberative and reflective in improving their classroom environments. The session will take place on April 11 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. A light lunch will be provided to registered participants.

The event also will feature open-table discussions with participants on the scholars’ current research, including examining ways to deepen online discussions and collaborations, improving student and instructor engagement both face-to-face and online, identifying ways to improve foreign language proficiency and investigating strategies for purposeful mentoring in field experiences.

To find out more about the Teaching Scholars Program or this special event, visit the Faculty Professional Development Center’s Teaching Scholars' Web page.

Kent State College of Business Administration Alumnus to Speak at the Michael D. Solomon Speaker Series

James S. Besselman, Kent State
University alumnus and vice president of
sales for the Enterprise Solutions Group,
will speak at the Michael D. Solomon Speaker
Series on April 9 at 7 p.m. at the Kent State
Hotel and Conference Center.

Kent State University alumnus James S. Besselman will speak at the Michael D. Solomon Speaker Series on the topic “Serial Entrepreneurship: Reflections and Life Lessons” on April 9 at 7 p.m. at the Kent State Hotel and Conference Center.

Currently the vice president of sales for the Enterprise Solutions Group, Besselman was raised in Canton, Ohio, in a family of working-class entrepreneurs.

“I knew from a young age the unique opportunity our country offers to start and own your own business,” Besselman says.

Besselman graduated from Kent State in 1974 with a bachelor's degree in business administration after serving as president of the Collegiate Marketing Association. He decided that the growing computer software industry was the best place to begin his career.

Besselman has worked globally for large companies such as Oracle, IBM and Baan, but he also has sought out and been involved with seven software start-ups, including his own, for which he was named Business Person of the local Chamber of Commerce.

“My true joy is to leverage vision in understanding new emerging technologies, then drive value for people and businesses, enabling them to better compete in the fast-moving global economy,” he says.

Besselman will discuss his lessons learned in his career so far in establishing, growing, taking public and selling computer software businesses.

"We are very excited to have an alumnus return to Kent State and share his entrepreneurial successes, failures and everything in between,” says Mary Heidler, operations manager for the Kent State College of Business Administration’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Business Innovation. “The Center for Entrepreneurship and Business Innovation is honored to have Mr. Besselman educate and inspire our current and next generation of entrepreneurs."

The Center for Entrepreneurship and Business Innovation is designed to reach out to Kent State and its Regional Campuses to fully immerse students in entrepreneurship from their first day through graduation; to help them develop entrepreneurial skills and an entrepreneurial mindset by offering innovative, experiential learning opportunities; and to foster relationships between the university and business communities. The Michael D. Solomon Speaker Series is just one way the center strives to reach its goal.

Kent State alumnus Michael D. Solomon has supported the speaker program since its first lecture in 2001 and designed the series to expose students and community members to successful entrepreneurs. The series brings experienced entrepreneurs and educators on campus each semester to share their insights and wisdom.

The Michael D. Solomon Speaker Series is free and open to the public. Registration is available online at www.kent.edu/cebi/michael-solomon.cfm.

“Father of Technology” Charles W. Keith to be Honored at 14th Annual Vision 21 Award Celebration

Kent State University’s College of Applied Engineering,
Sustainability and Technology will posthumously honor
former Kent State Assistant Dean Charles Keith, Ph.D.,
with the Clinton Van Deusen Award, the college’s highest
honor. Keith is nationally recognized as the “father of
technology” for single-handedly starting NAIT, a national
technology accreditation organization.

Kent State University’s College of Applied Engineering, Sustainability and Technology will host the 14th annual Vision 21 Award Celebration at the Kent Student Center on Saturday, May 3, at 6 p.m.

The evening will posthumously honor former Assistant Dean Charles W. Keith, Ph.D. Keith is nationally recognized as the “father of technology” for single-handedly starting NAIT, a national technology accreditation organization. His children will accept the Clinton Van Deusen Award, the college’s highest honor, on his behalf.

“Dr. Charles Keith is a special person in the history of Kent State University,” says John DeCola, director of institutional advancement at Kent State. “This recognition is long overdue, and we are thrilled to honor him, as well as our five distinguished alumni.”

The recognized alumni include Corey Head, Martin Dusel, Mark White, Don Ball and Captain Peter Cook. AGC of Akron, Ajax TOCCO Magnethermic, item NA and CommutAir will be inducted into the Corporate Hall of Fame, and key scholarships will be awarded to the highest-achieving students.

“This is going to be a wonderful evening to share with our alumni and friends,” says DeCola.

Tickets for the event and sit-down dinner are $50; parties of eight can purchase a table at $360. The registration deadline is April 2.

Contact Peg Studer for reservations at 330-672-5822 or mastuder@kent.edu. If you are interested in sponsorships ranging from $500 to $2,000, contact DeCola at 330-672-8754 or jdecola2@kent.edu to request specifics.

Department of Pan-African Studies to Hold Africa and the Global Atlantic World Conference

Kent State University’s Department of Pan-African Studies will host the Africa and the Global Atlantic World Conference on April 10 and 11 at Ritchie Hall on the Kent Campus.

This second biannual conference is themed “Revisiting Black History, Identities, Sexualities and Popular Culture,” and aims to explore new ways of studying the complex experiences of Africana people worldwide.

The conference kicks off April 10 with a Department of Pan-African Studies open house at noon followed by a reception starting at 5 p.m. in the Uumbaji Gallery Foyer of Ritchie Hall. Student performances Under the Boabab: A Festival of Pan-African Arts will follow the reception from 7 – 8:30 p.m. The keynote address and nine open sessions will take place from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on April 11.

The keynote speaker, Horace Campbell, professor of African American Studies and political science at Syracuse University and noted Pan-African scholar and writer, will speak from 12:15-1:45 p.m. on April 11, during a lunch session in Ritchie Hall, Room 215. From his early years in Jamaica, Campbell has been involved in the liberation struggle and in the struggles for peace and justice. From his years in United Kingdom and the Caribbean, he has been an influential force, offering alternatives to the hegemonic ideas of Eurocentrism. In an attempt to theorize new concepts of revolution in the 21st century, Campbell has been seeking to popularize the philosophy of Ubuntu and to expand on his ideas of fractals and the importance of emancipatory politics. His new book, Barack Obama and 21st Century Politics: A Revolutionary Moment in the USA, is about the centrality of the humanist philosophy of Ubuntu to emancipatory politics and the reconceptualization of revolution in the 21st century.

Session topics on April 11 include:

• Traditions and Aesthetics of Pan-African Music
• The Process of Acceptance: Being a White Instructor in Pan-African Studies Department
  
• Passing, Black Bodies and Race in Literature and Culture
• Cosmology and Identities in Transatlantic and Islamic Traditions
• Education, Historical Relationships and Multinational Corporations in Africa
• Women and Power Across Borders
• Media, Identity and Knowledge Preservation in Pan-African Cultures
• Language, Race and Endurance in Transnational Literature and Culture
• (De)Constructing, Femininity and Blackbodies
  

“The hope is that participants will come away with a renewed, supported and better understanding of the challenges that people of the African Diaspora are facing,” says Cinnamon Small, outreach coordinator for the Department of Pan-African Studies. “We want them to have the space to learn how to address the issues surrounding cultural competency and challenge hegemonic ideas.”

Conference registration is $50 and includes a reception, continental breakfast and lunch. For more information on the conference and to register, visit www.kent.edu/cas/pas/conference/index.cfm.

Kent State College of Arts and Sciences Holds Symposium on Advances in Organic Photovoltaics

Researchers will present findings on new flexible solar-powered materials

Zhenan Bao, Ph.D., professor of chemical engineering at
Stanford University, will serve as morning keynote speaker
at Kent State University's third annual Symposium on
Advances in Organic Photovoltaics on April 16.

Kent State University will host its third annual Symposium on Advances in Organic Photovoltaics (OPVs) on April 16 from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. in the Moulton Hall Ballroom on the Kent Campus. The symposium is free and open to the public and serves as a platform for discussions about OPV research, opportunities and development. A poster session and reception will follow the presentations starting at 4:30 p.m.

OPVs are specialized, carbon-based materials used in solar cells and unlike typical solar cells that are silicon or thin-film-based. They are flexible and have the potential to be produced at much lower costs than conventional solar cells using processes such as jet-printing, spray painting and roll-to-roll manufacturing.

The symposium’s morning keynote speaker is Zhenan Bao, Ph.D., professor of chemical engineering at Stanford University. Prior to joining Stanford in 2004, she was a Distinguished Member of Technical Staff in Bell Labs, Lucent Technologies from 1995-2004.

Peter Green, chair of the Materials Science
and Engineering department at the University
of Michigan, will speak at the Symposium on
Advances in Organic Photovoltaics.

Bao’s presentation, "Molecular Design and Solution Shearing to Manipulate Molecular Packing, Morphology and Electronic Properties of Organic Semiconductors," will shed light on polymer and small molecule semiconductor materials as alternatives to inorganic semiconductors in applications where low-cost, flexible or transparent substrates, and large area format is required.

The afternoon keynote speakers are Peter Green and Lars Müller-Meskamp. Green is the Vincent T. and Gloria M. Gorguze Professor of Engineering and chair of the Materials Science and Engineering department at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He also is the director of the Center for Solar and Thermal Energy Conversion (CSTEC), a Department of Energy-sponsored Energy Frontier Research Center (EFRC). His presentation, “Morphological Design, Transport Processes and Device Performance of Organic Solar Cells,” will discuss research on carrier transport processes (carrier mobilities recombination, charge generation) in specific morphologies for the poly(3-hexylthiophene):phenyl-C61 butyric acid methyl ester (P3HT:PCBM) system, engineered to possess different morphologies, and the effect on device performance parameters.

Lars Müller-Meskamp, head of a research
group at Institut für Angewandte Photophysik,
Technische Universität Dresden, is afternoon
speaker at the Symposium on Advances in
Organic Photovoltaics.

Müller-Meskamp heads a research group for alternative transparent electrodes and encapsulation for organic optoelectronic devices at Institut für Angewandte Photophysik, Technische Universität Dresden (IAPP). Before joining the IAPP, he worked at Qimonda Dresden in the development of flash memory technology. His presentation, "Alternative Transparent Electrode Technologies and Encapsulation for Organic Photovoltaics," will discuss a number of materials and technologies for transparent electrodes.

Kent State’s initiative on OPVs started in 2009 when a group of its faculty members from the Departments of Physics, Chemistry, Chemical Physics, and the College of Technology (now the College of Applied Engineering, Sustainability and Technology) developed a proposal under the Coordinated Research Hiring Initiative to create three new faculty positions.

The symposium features invited presentations from professionals in the region, including Paul Lane, Ph.D., of the Naval Research Laboratory; Quan Li, Ph.D., senior research fellow, Liquid Crystal Institute at Kent State; Björn Lüssem, Ph.D., assistant professor of physics, Kent State; Kenneth D. Singer, Ph.D., of Case Western Reserve University; and Wei You, Ph.D., of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

For more information and to register, visit www.kent.edu/cas/opv.

Kent State School of Theatre and Dance Presents Jazz and Modern Dances in Kent Dance Ensemble Concert

Kent State University’s School of Theatre and Dance continues its 2013-2014 season with faculty and guest choreographed works performed by members of the Kent Dance Ensemble. Movin’ On Up will be presented at 8 p.m. on Friday, April 4, and Saturday, April 5, and at 2 p.m. on April 6. The annual concert will be performed in the E. Turner Stump Theatre, located in the Center for the Performing Arts (formerly the Music and Speech Building) at 1325 Theatre Drive on the Kent Campus.

For tickets, call 330-672-ARTS (2787), purchase online at www.dance.kent.edu or in person at the Performing Arts Box Office located in the Roe Green Center lobby of the Center for the Performing Arts, Monday – Friday, noon to 5 p.m. Tickets are $16 for adults, $14 for Kent State alumni, faculty and staff, $12 for seniors (60+), and non-Kent State students age 18 and under are $8. Tickets for full-time, Kent Campus undergraduate students are free. Groups of 10 or more can purchase tickets for $10 per person. The box office accepts Visa, MasterCard, Discover, checks and cash.

Movin’ On Up is a concert of jazz and modern dances choreographed by four Kent State faculty members and guest artists Christopher K. Morgan (Washington, D.C.) and Karen Stokes (Houston, Texas). The evening opens with Stokes’ Midnight. Stokes explores a mysterious world between sunset and sunrise that hints at the cyclical journey of life. The lush choreography reveals a restrained, dramatic style for that in-between state of sleep and wakefulness. Stokes uses a counterpoint of a soloist against the corps, to embed the ensemble in a world of enigma and meditation that resolves into a peaceful calm of community solidarity and cooperation.

Kimberly Karpanty, artistic director and associate professor at Kent State, premieres a new duet titled Caught. The dancers are captured, embraced, trapped, ensnared, entangled and deceived by each other, the light and the space as Karpanty explores both literal and metaphorical meanings of the word.

Three Sister Sonata, choreographed by Associate Professor Barbara Allegra Verlezza, is a modern-based work that focuses on the relationship of three women exploring the stages and struggles of growth, aging and change. The exquisite guitar rendering by Paul Galbraith of J.S. Bach’s Sonata No.1 (Adagio) serves as inspiration for the work with its rich and somber tone.

Set to several musical pieces by Vivaldi, Morgan’s Faux Pas abstractly explores the idea of being in and out of line. The work incorporates supple and virtuosic, full bodied movement and magnetic partnering as it plays on the many meanings of faux pas (false steps or social errors), such as starting something that one doesn't finish, leading someone forward you don't intend to see to the end of the journey or impeding another's path. Morgan is the inaugural Armstrong Family Guest Visiting Artist, a new guest artist series for dance sponsored by Lawrence and Sandy Armstrong.

Assistant Professor Joan Meggitt’s The World Above Us will feature dances excerpted from an evening-length performance conceived and directed by Cleveland composer and multimedia artist Greg D’Alessio. The work tells the story of several generations of women with the gift of second sight.

Purposefully Alive, choreographed by part-time dance faculty member Danielle Stevens, is a mix of jazz and hip-hop dance styles. This rhythmic work was created to celebrate the dancer inside all of us; we hope to leave you tappin’ your feet and feeling free, empowered and alive!

In addition to the main stage concert each season, the Kent Dance Ensemble conducts lecture- demonstration performances and movement workshops for the community and K-12 students. Contact Karpanty at 330-672-0127 or kkarpant@kent.edu for more information on the ensemble’s upcoming performances and educational outreach programs.

College of Business Administration’s Global Management Center to Host Ron Menning for Discussion About Chinese Market

J. Ron Menning, senior vice president of
planning and development for the Timken
Company, will speak about recent changes
to the Chinese market on April 8 at the Kent
State Hotel and Conference Center.

The Kent State University College of Business Administration’s Global Management Center will host J. Ron Menning, senior vice president of planning and development for the Timken Company, on April 8 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the Kent State Hotel and Conference Center. Admission is free and open to the general public.

“One recent development of interest to both the business community and university is the evolving role of China in the global marketplace,” says Michael Mayo, Ph.D., director of the Global Management Center at Kent State.

For his presentation titled, “Competing in the Changing Chinese Market: The Timken Story,” Menning will discuss recent changes to the Chinese market to business professionals, students and faculty.

Menning is currently in charge of leading the development of the Timken Company’s enterprise strategy, consisting of identification and the evaluation of different growth opportunities worldwide.

Previously, Menning served as senior vice president of Timken's Asia Pacific division based in Shanghai. Menning focused on development and executed the company’s growth strategy in Asia, expanding Timken throughout India and China.

Prior to his career at Timken, Menning served as the president of the Aerospace, Defense and Positioning Control business segment within the Bearings and Power Transmission group. Due to his leading commercial, military aviation, aerospace, health and positioning control strategic business development, Menning expanded the business through acquisition and organic expansion.

Menning received a bachelor’s degree in computer science and business management from Wittenburg University and attended the University of Akron for a master’s degree in business administration.

He will be the first presenter in the Global Management Center’s Speaker Series.

“The Global Management Speaker Series is designed to help keep the business community and Kent State University up to date with the latest developments in global trade,” Mayo says.

The series serves as a networking event to merge area business leaders with Kent State’s College of Business Administration to further economic interests of Northeast Ohio.

To attend the presentation, register at www.kent.edu/business/centersandchairs/register-for-the-global-management-speaker-series.cfm.

African Community Theatre’s Spring Production to Premiere April 11

Terrence Spivey is director of the Kent
State University African Community
Theatre's production of For Colored Girls
Who Have Considered Suicide When the
Rainbow is Enuf, a choreopoem by Ntozake
Shange, that will premiere on April 11 at
Ritchie Hall. Spivey is director-in-residence
at Kent State's African Community Theatre.

Kent State University’s African Community Theatre will premiere its production of For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf, a choreopoem by Ntozake Shange, directed by Terrence Spivey, on April 11 at 7:30 p.m. in the African Community Theatre, Room 230, Ritchie Hall, located at 225 Terrace Drive on the Kent Campus.

This groundbreaking choreopoem – a modern-day classic – was first produced in New York City in 1975 with Henry Street Settlement and Joseph Papp Public Theatre and then made its Broadway debut in 1976. For Colored Girls was later adapted for screenplay by Tyler Perry in 2010. It is a spellbinding collection of vivid prose and free verse narratives about and performed by black women. Twenty poems capturing the brutal, tender and dramatic lives of contemporary black women, For Colored Girls offers a transformative, riveting evening of provocative dance, music and poetry.

Play dates and show times are:

• April 11 and 12 at 7:30 p.m., doors open at 7 p.m.
• April 13 at 2 p.m. (matinee only), doors open at 1:30 p.m.
• April 24 and 25 at 7:30 p.m., doors open at 7 p.m.
• April 26 at 2 p.m. (matinee), doors open at 1:30 p.m.; and 7:30 p.m., doors open at 7 p.m.
• April 27 at 2 p.m. (matinee), doors open at 1:30 p.m.
  

Tickets are $10 at the door. Kent State undergraduate students will be admitted for free. Parking is available at the rear of Ritchie Hall. Additional parking is available at the Kent Student Center visitor lot on Summit Street.

Spivey joined Kent State for the 2013-2014 academic year as its director-in-residence. Since 2003, he has been the artistic director of the Karamu House, a historic performing arts center in Cleveland. His work seeks to “educate, inspire and entertain diverse audiences in thought-provoking ways,” he says. Spivey’s full biography is available at www.kent.edu/cas/pas/communityandarts/director.cfm.

Established in 1970, the African Community Theatre brings awareness and appreciation of the experiences of people of African descent as illustrated through theatrical performances. The African Community Theatre welcomes community participation, regardless of gender, sexuality, race, class and/or ethnicity. For more information about the African Community Theatre, visit www.kent.edu/cas/pas/communityandarts/african-community-theater.cfm.

Virginia Hamilton Conference on Multicultural Literature Celebrates 30 Years

Coretta Scott King award-winning children’s author
Christopher Paul Curtis will speak at Kent State University's
Virginia Hamilton Conference in April.

Kent State University’s Virginia Hamilton Conference on Multicultural Literature for Youth marks its 30th anniversary this year, celebrating the “Pearls of Wisdom” found in the works of renowned children’s author Virginia Hamilton and those she has inspired over the years. The conference is scheduled for Thursday and Friday, April 3 and 4, in the Kent Student Center.

Newbery Medal and Coretta Scott King award-winning children’s author Christopher Paul Curtis; New York Times best-selling author Andrea Davis Pinkney; and Caldecott Medal-winning illustrator David Diaz headline this year’s conference, which includes a full schedule of workshops addressing multicultural themes and issues in literature for children and young adults.

The conference begins Thursday evening with a pasta dinner, keynote address by Curtis and “African-American Experience,” a performance by Voices in the Valley Heritage Performance Class. Friday’s schedule includes presentations by Pinkney and Diaz, along with workshops on such timely topics as multicultural approaches to the common core, growing 21st-century global citizens, and multicultural and international apps, ebooks and websites for young people.

New York Times best-selling author
Andrea Davis Pinkney will speak at Kent
State University’s Virginia Hamilton
Conference in April.

Curtis will receive the 2014 Virginia Hamilton Literary Award, honoring an American author or illustrator whose books demonstrate artistic excellence and make a significant contribution to the field of multicultural literature for children and adolescents. His highly acclaimed first book, The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963, published in 1996, was a Newbery Honor Book, Coretta Scott King Honor Book, Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year, New York Times Book Review Best Book of the Year, American Library Association (ALA) Best Book for Young Adults and ALA Notable Children's Book. In September 2013, The Watsons Go to Birmingham was named one of the New York Public Library’s 100 Great Children’s Books of the Last 100 Years. With his second book, Bud, Not Buddy, Curtis became the first African-American man to receive the Newbery Medal, and his book was the first novel to receive both the Newbery Medal and the Coretta Scott King Award.

Pinkney is the award-winning author of more than 30 books for children and young adults, including picture books, novels, historical fiction and nonfiction. Her Hand in Hand: Ten Black Men Who Changed America received the 2013 Coretta Scott King Author Award medal and was named a New York Times Notable Book and a Chicago Public Library “Best of the Best.” In addition to her work as an author, Pinkney is vice president and executive editor at Scholastic, where she launched the first African-American children’s book imprint at a major publishing company. She has been named one of the “25 Most Influential Black Women in Business” by The Network Journal and one of “The 25 Most Influential People in Our Children’s Lives” by Children’s Health Magazine.

Caldecott Medal-winning illustrator David
Diaz will speak at Kent State University's
Virginia Hamilton Conference in April.

Diaz won a Caldecott Medal for the illustrations in his first picture book, Smoky Night (1994), by Eve Bunting, which was also named a 1995 School Library Journal Best Book of the Year. Most recently, he won the Pura Belpre Illustrator Award for Gary D. Schmidt’s Martin de Porres: The Rose in the Desert (2013). Three other books have been Pura Belpre Honor books: The Pot That Juan Built by Nancy Andrews-Goebel (2004); César: ¡Sí, Se Puede! Yes, We Can! by Carmen T. Bernier-Grand (2006); and Diego: Bigger Than Life by Carmen T. Bernier-Grand (2010). His work is sometimes compared to that of George Rouault or Marc Chagall, but Diaz does not seek to emulate any artist. Inspired by the innovation of Viennese Secessionists, such as Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele, Diaz aims to break away from any constrictions and develop his own way of telling stories through illustration.

The Virginia Hamilton Conference is the longest-running event in the United States to focus exclusively on multicultural literature for children and young adults. Honoring author Virginia Hamilton, the conference reflects a commitment to promoting cultural awareness and affirming cultural pride while addressing the array of issues that surround the concept of culture. The conference, held each April at Kent State, is sponsored by the School of Library and Information Science and the College of Education, Health and Human Services and through the Office of Continuing and Distance Education.

For more information about the conference and a link for registration, visit www.kent.edu/virginiahamiltonconference/index.cfm.