Black Panther Party leader to speak at ALA breakfast

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Eileen Lawrence, Vice President, Sales and Marketing
Alexander Street Press, LLC
lawrence@alexanderstreet.com
800-889-5937 ext. 2

Here are a few reasons to join us for breakfast at the ALA Midwinter Conference in Boston on Sunday, January 16. If you have not received your invitation, please contact us today!

Then: David Hilliard, Black Panther leader	Now: David Hilliard, historian, archivist, author, teacher, voting rights activist

• David Hilliard, former Chief of Staff of the Black Panther Party, will be our guest speaker. Because of Mr. Hilliard’s appearance, we expect our largest crowd ever. We’re booking extra space, but seating will be limited. So please reply early. (See below for details.)
• Twentieth Century North American Drama – Be among the first to see Release 1 of the largest electronic collection of plays by the leading writers of our time. We’re talking about in-copyright works by the major dramatists of the century, including many living authors, such as Maxwell Anderson, Robert Sherwood, S.N. Behrman, John Guare, Nora Ephron, Jules Feiffer, A.R. Gurney, Robert Lowell, Moises Kaufman, Elmer Rice, Wallace Stevens, Kurt Vonnegut, Romulus Linney, Naomi Wallace, Lee Breuer, Edmund Wilson, Susan Sontag, Lillian Hellman, William Saroyan, August Wilson, Beth Henley, John O'Hara, Megan Terry, James Baldwin, Marsha Norman, Gertrude Stein, the team of Jerome Lawrence & Robert E. Lee, William Styron…too many to mention, and new writers are licensed every week.
• North American Theatre Online – Be among the first to see the live prototype of the largest electronic reference tool ever created for drama. Brand new Alexander Street Conductor™ technology integrates editorially selected Web content, our many drama full-text collections, and tens of thousands of pages of key reference books —all orchestrated through one search. (Included are O’Dell’s “Annals of the New York Stage” licensed from Columbia University Press; the “Companion to American Theatre,” the American Theatre “Chronicle” volumes, and other works licensed from Oxford; Weldon Durham’s “American Theatre Companies” and other resources from Greenwood—40,000 pages of reference works.)
• Classical Music Library – now that Alexander Street has acquired Classical Music Library, hear what we’ll be creating for you in the area of music.
• Coming very soon: North American Indian Biographical Database, Black Short Fiction, Latin American Women Writers, and more major studio agreements announced for American Film Scripts

About David Hilliard’s presentation:

What lessons can we draw from the history of the Black Panthers, relevant to today’s racial struggles and achievements?

David Hilliard, former Chief of Staff of the Black Panther Party, will present a slide-show history of the Panthers. He’ll discuss the less-remembered activities (breakfast and lunch programs, preventative health care, voter registration drives, local organizing); the people (Newton, Carmichael, Seale, Cleaver, etc.); the encounters with police and the FBI that dominated the news; and his own personal history.

We’ve licensed some of his archival materials, which are being added now to our Black Thought and Culture database (including his personal full run of “The Black Panther” – the party’s newspaper – and his oral history interviews of key figures).

If you would like to join us for a wonderful morning of food, friends, and knowledge, please contact us for your personal invitation. We’ll serve our legendary fabulous breakfast, and you’ll see many of your colleagues—attendance consistently runs around 125–200, and this year we expect at least twice as many people. This event will fill up quickly, so contact us soon, and please be sure to include your name, position, and email address!

• WHEN: Sunday, January 16, at 8 AM.
• WHAT: An elegant and delicious breakfast with your colleagues; a presentation by David Hilliard, former Chief of Staff of the Black Panther Party; and an Alexander Street news update.
• LOCATION: Sheraton Hotel (connected to Convention Center). Room name to follow.
• RSVP: We need a head count for the caterer! This event is by invitation only, but you can contact us if you have not received one.