The Center for Black Literature
Medgar Evers College
1650 Bedford Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11225
E: [email protected]
www.centerforblackliterature.org
Brenda M. Greene, Ph.D.
Executive Director
CBL Advisory Board
Dr. Myrlie Evers-Williams
Honorary Chair
Dale Allender
Associate Executive Director
National Council of Teachers
of English
Patrick A. Buddington
Chief Marketing Officer
IMC Communications Group
The Honorable Hakeem Jeffries
U.S. House of Representatives,
D-NY, 8th District
Richard Jones Jr.
Chief of Staff
& Deputy to the President
Medgar Evers College, CUNY
Louise Mirrer
President and CEO
New-York Historical Society
Jerald Posman
Senior Vice President/
Chief Operating Officer
Medgar Evers College, CUNY
Lawrence Schiller Jr.
President and Co-Founder
The Norman Mailer Center
Richard Wesley
Writer, Goldberg Chair,
Department of Dramatic
Writing
New York University
Marcia White
President
Personalized Skincare
John Edgar Wideman
Writer, ASA Messer, Professor of
African American Studies and English
Brown University
Cheryl Wills
Author, Anchor, Reporter
Time Warner Cable, NY1 News
Schawannah Wright
Associate Director, Community
Outreach and Education
Columbia University School of the Arts
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Media Contact
Clarence V. Reynolds, Center for Black Literature
[email protected]
718-804-8881
DR. BRENDA M. GREENE HONORED BY THE HARLEM ARTS FESTIVAL
AND THE COMMUNITY COUNCIL FOR MEDGAR EVERS COLLEGE
Brooklyn, N.Y. — Dr. Brenda M. Greene, Chair of the English Department and
Executive Director of the Center for Black Literature at Medgar Evers College of
the City University of New York, will be recognized for her inspiration and
commitment to the community and education leadership by two organizations
in April 2015.
On Thursday, April 2, 2015 at the Harlem Arts Festival Gala, Dr. Greene will
receive the Lynnette Velasco Community Impact Award which is named after
Lynnette Velasco, the late Chief of Staff for Councilmember Inez Dickens. Dr.
Greene is the sole honoree for this event. Velasco was instrumental to
establishing the Harlem Arts Festival in 2013. Funds for the gala will support the
mission of the Harlem Arts Festival. Its mission is to provide resources, visibility
and career opportunities to artists, to increase participation and engagement in
the arts by the Harlem Community and to continue Harlem’s legacy of making
art that preserves the history and develops the identity of Harlem. The event
takes place at MADIBA @ MIST HARLEM, at 7:30 p.m. For more information
about the event, please go to http://www.eventbrite.com/e/harlem-artsfestival-2015-gala-tickets-15052583683.
On Saturday, April 18, 2015, Dr. Greene will receive the Education Leadership
Award from the Community Council for Medgar Evers College Inc., at its Annual
Spring Scholarship and Leadership Awards Luncheon. The luncheon will be held
12:00 noon at Medgar Evers College’s Skylight Café, 1638 Bedford Ave. The
Community Council for Medgar Evers College Inc. was formed in the early 1960s
and incorporated in 1972 as a not-for-profit organization at the insistence of
community residents to establish a four-year college in the Central Brooklyn
Community. For more information and to purchase tickets, please call 347-2689679 or email: [email protected].
(continued)
Greene honored, pp. 2
About Dr. Brenda Greene:
For more than four decades, Dr. Brenda Greene has committed her life to teaching, learning and
scholarship, and has worked to provide support that nurtures and cultivates the critical reading and
writing habits of a cross-generation of readers and writers. The schools and programs in which she has
worked and supported help to affirm students’ self-esteem, identity and cultural awareness and to
improve students’ literacy. As the passionate and committed leader of the Center for Black Literature,
Dr. Greene has spearheaded several literary programs that provide hundreds of students with access to
the literary arts created by Black writers. Having worked in the New York Public School system prior to
teaching at Medgar Evers College, Dr. Greene truly knows and values the importance of culturally
relevant education and alternative pedagogies.
Dr. Greene’s research and scholarly work include composition, African-American literature and
multicultural literature. She holds a Ph.D. in English with a concentration in education from New York
University and has extensive essays, grants, book reviews, and presentations in English studies.
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