| Noted humanitarian, civil
rights activist and consummate entertainer Harry Belafonte will
come to campus in December as this year’s Balfour Distinguished Speaker
on Diversity in the Communication Industries. Belafonte’s visit and speech
marks the second Balfour Speaker presented by the College’s Center
for Diversity in the Communication Industries.
Belafonte will speak at the
Cutler Majestic Theatre on Friday, Dec. 2, at 7:30 p.m. He will discuss
“The Imperative for Equality and Inclusion in Arts and Communications
in the 21st Century.”
Belafonte’s distinguished
career spans motion pictures, television, Broadway, recordings and concerts.
Belafonte is widely known for the hit “Banana Boat Song (Day-O),” which
was memorably used in the film Beetlejuice and is part of his third
album, Calypso, which became the first major album to sell over
1 million copies.
“Mr. Belafonte, a true world
citizen and exemplar of service to humankind, was chosen as the Balfour
Distinguished Lecturer for 2005 because he represents the results of the
power of goodness of human beings when applied in a professional arena,”
said William Smith, executive director for the College’s Center for Diversity
in the Communication Industries. He adds, “This goodness is manifested
in his championing equity and dignity for all people in the arts and communication
industries. Social equity has been advanced through his dedicated work
in promoting human and civil rights in America and around the world.”
Born in Harlem and raised
in Jamaica, Belafonte first supported his acting studies as an intermission
singer at the Royal Roost, a famed New York nightclub, where his backup
band included Max Roach, Charlie Parker and Miles Davis.
He first appeared on Broadway
in the musical, John Murray Anderson’s Almanac, for which he won
a Tony Award. Belafonte also starred in films like Bright Road and
Carmen Jones, both opposite Dorothy Dandridge, as well as in Odds
Against Tomorrow, The World, The Flesh and the Devil, Uptown Saturday Night
and Island in the Sun. In 1960, Belafonte won an Emmy for Tonight
With Belafonte.
Belafonte’s concert tours
have been worldwide sellouts since 1956. He has also been instrumental
as a patron and supporter of black musicians, including acclaimed South
African artists Miriam Makeba and Hugh Masekela.
He has also dedicated his
life to humanitarian and civil rights, working with President John F. Kennedy,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela. In 1985, he played a central
role in organizing the USA for Africa famine relief recording of “We Are
the World” and has been a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador since 1987.
Belafonte has recently returned
to his first love, acting, starring in two motion pictures White Man’s
Burden, with John Travolta, and Robert Altman’s film, Kansas City.
The first Balfour speaker
was actor-activist Danny Glover in February 2004.
Emerson College's Center
for Diversity in the Communication Industries is funded in part by a $500,000
grant from the Lloyd G. Balfour Foundation, Bank of America, N.A., Trustee.
The Lloyd G. Balfour Foundation arose out of the estate of Lloyd G. Balfour.
Balfour, who died in 1973, was the owner of the L.G. Balfour Co., the renowned
Attleboro, Mass., manufacturer of class rings, membership insignia and
other related products. One of the foundation’s grant priorities is education,
including college-readiness and diversity-related programs that provide
access to educational opportunities for under-served populations. |
