Nontombi Naomi Tutu to keynote ISU Human Rights Celebration

Idaho State University Student Unions will host Nontombi Naomi Tutu for the 2009 Human Rights Celebration keynote presentation at 7 p.m. Jan. 22 in the Pond Student Union Wood River Room.

The lecture titled “Striving for Justice: Searching for Common Ground” will be followed by a 30-minute question-and-answer period and a reception in honor of Tutu.

The lecture is free and open to the community. This is one of more than 10 events scheduled for the ISU Human Rights Celebration. A complete list of other events follows.

The third child of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nontombi Naomi Tutu is an internationally recognized speaker and consultant on gender, race and international relations. As chairperson of the Tutu Foundation from 1985 until 1990, she helped South African refugees in African countries get scholarships to learn skills that would make them self-supporting while in exile, as well as to prepare them for constructive roles in the free South Africa.   

In addition to her speaking engagements, Tutu is a consultant for two organizations that reflect the breadth of her involvement in human rights issues. The organizations are the Spiritual Alliance to Stop Intimate Violence (SAIV), and the foundation for Hospices in Sub-Saharan Africa.

For a complete list of events and for more information on Tutu, visit the ISU Human Rights Celebration Web site at www.isu.edu/union/human_rights.

Additional Human Rights Celebration events are as follows:

• Saturday, Jan. 17: Africa Night, 6 p.m. Pond Student Union Ballroom. Experience a night of African culture that includes African cuisine, live cultural music, dances and more.

• Monday, Jan. 19:  Martin Luther King Jr. March, 1:30 p.m.  The march begins at the north parking lot of Holt Arena and finishes at the Pond Student Union Bengal Theater. The NCAACP and the ISU Diversity Resource Center will commemorate Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday with the annual march. A short presentation concerning historical events will follow.

• Tuesday, Jan. 20: Film “Tulia, Texas” (NR), 5 p.m., Pond Student Union Bengal Theater. “Tulia, Texas” is the story of a small town’s search for justice and the price Americans pay for the nation’s war on drugs.

• Tuesday, Jan. 20: Fair-Trade Coffee Night, 7:30 p.m., Pond Student Union Bengal Theater.  Fair-trade coffee and discussion on the current condition of the world coffee trade will be held prior to the showing of the film “Black Gold.”

• Tuesday, Jan. 20: Film “Black Gold,” 8 p.m., Pond Student Union Bengal Theater. “Black Gold” offers insight into the international coffee trade and its ramifications for the farmers who grow coffee.

• Wednesday, Jan. 21: International Human Rights Panel Discussion, noon, Rendezvous Complex Conference Room B. International students will discuss human rights issues from their respective countries.

• Wednesday, Jan. 21: Film “Invisible Children: The Rough Cut,” 8 p.m., Pond Student Union Bengal Theater. “Invisible Children: The Rough Cut” documents the plight of child soldiers and night commuters in northern Uganda.

• Thursday, Jan. 22: “The Pocatello Triangle Panel Discussion,” noon, Rendezvous Complex Suite. Local Pocatello residents will discuss a part of Pocatello’s history that is often forgotten, the Triangle, which consisted of different minority groups living in a specific area within Pocatello.

• Thursday, Jan. 22: Nontombi Naomi Tutu informal classroom discussion, 3:30 p.m., Pond Student Union Portneuf Room. Tutu, in an informal setting, will discuss issues of reconciliation with ISU students.

• Thursday, Jan. 22: ISU Human Rights Celebration Keynote Presentation “Striving for Justice: Searching for Common Ground” by Nontombi Naomi Tutu, 7 p.m., Pond Student Union Wood River Room.