Quraysh Ali Lansana, Enid native, receives NAACP Image Award

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Quraysh Ali Lansana, born Ray Myles, in Enid, was awarded an NAACP Image Award for his work in literature and education in a ceremony in Los Angeles on Feb. 17.

From The Oklahoman:

Lansana — who attended the University of Oklahoma before he crossed over from broadcast news to poetry — and co-author Georgia A. Popoff have been nominated for an NAACP Image Award for excellence in instructional literature for the book “Our Difficult Sunlight: A Guide to Poetry, Literacy and Social Justice in Classroom and Community.”

The 43rd NAACP Image Awards will be televised nationally at 7 p.m. Friday on NBC.

The book is a teaching tool for writing instructors. Lansana has spent 10 years as an associate professor of English and creative writing at Chicago State University.

Lansana teaches at Chicago State University.

Play dramatizes 1958 Oklahoma City sit-in for civil rights

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Play dramatizes 1958 Oklahoma City sit-in for civil rights

“Sitting in with Clara Luper”, a play by Rhythmically Speaking

This is a free theatrical performance for ages 8 to 108, directed by DWe Williams.

Join Rhythmically Speaking for a sit-down event celebrating Clara Luper, Mother of the Civil Rights Movement.

Members of the Youth Council of the NAACP and Clara Luper sat down at Katz Drug Store on August 19, 1958 and ordered a Coke. This was one of many sit-in protests in Oklahoma City which resulted in the Integration of Katz Drug Store, Split-T Drive-in, the Skirvin Hotel and hundreds of other businesses.

“I’m gonna sit in with Clara ’cause I can’t stand for this anymore”.

Co-Sponsor: Friends of the Metropolitan Library System, Oklahoma Arts Council, National Endowment for the Arts

When: Sunday, February 19 | 2 – 3 pm

Where: Ronald J Norick Public Library, 300 Park Ave, Oklahoma City, OK 73102

2012 clara luper play flyer (PDF)