Huntingdon College
Faith | Wisdom | Service
News Release
February 13, 2018
For Immediate release:
Poet Frank X. Walker to speak for Huntingdon’s Ellison Lecture
Montgomery, Ala.—Former Kentucky Poet Laureate Frank X. Walker, a professor of English and African American/Africana Studies at the University of Kentucky, will be the featured speaker for Huntingdon College’s Rhoda Coleman Ellison Writers Festival and Lecture, Thursday, February 22, 7:30 p.m. in Smith Music Building’s Delchamps Recital Hall. A native of Danville, Kentucky, Walker has been voted one of the most creative professors in the South. He is the originator of the word Affrilachia and is dedicated to deconstructing and forcing a new definition of what it means to be Appalachian.
Walker says “as a writer/observer/truth teller, I choose to focus on social justice issues as well as multiple themes of family, identity and place.” Walker has lectured, conducted workshops, read poetry, and exhibited for more than 300 venues, including the Verbal Arts Centre in Derry, Northern Ireland; Santiago, Cuba; Berkeley; Notre Dame; Louisiana State University at Alexandria; University of Washington; Virginia Tech.; Radford University; and Appalachian State University. Walker is the author or editor of numerous works, including Ink Stains and Watermarks: New and Uncollected Poems (Duncan Hall Press, 2017); About Flight (Accents Publishing, 2015); Turn Me Loose: The Unghosting of Medgar Evers (University of Georgia Press, 2013); and Isaac Murphy: I Dedicate This Ride (Old Cove Press, 2010). The founder/executive director of the Bluegrass Black Arts Consortium, Walker has served as program coordinator of The University of Kentucky’s King Cultural Center and assistant director of Purdue University’s Black Cultural Center.
The lecture is free and open to the public, part of the Huntingdon College Community and Cultural Events Series, sponsored by Baptist Health.
Grounded in the Judeo-Christian tradition of the United Methodist Church, Huntingdon College is committed to nurturing growth in faith, wisdom, and service.
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Suellen (Su) Ofe
Vice President
for Marketing and Communications
Huntingdon College
1500 E. Fairview Ave., Montgomery, AL 36106
(334) 833-4515; Cell (334) 324-6591
www.huntingdon.edu
