“Intelligent Conversations: The Power of Words” featuring Michele Norris at the Davenport RiverCenter -- October 19.
Wednesday, October 19, 5 p.m.
Davenport RiverCenter, 136 East Third Street, Davenport IA
With her professional recognition including an Emmy Award, two Peabody Awards, and 2009 citation as the National Association of Black Journalists' Journalist of the Year, Washington Post columnist and NPR host Michele Norris will speak at an October 19 Davenport RiverCenter event sponsored by public-radio station WVIK and the Joyce and Tony Singh Family Foundation, with Norris giving a keynote address on Intelligent Conversations: The Power of Words.
Following her graduation from the University of Minnesota, Norris wrote for the Minnesota Daily, and then became a reporter for WCCO-TV. She went on to contribute to the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, and the Los Angeles Times, and while at the Post in 1990, Norris received the Livingston Award for articles she wrote about the life of a six-year-old boy who lived with a crack-addicted mother in a crack house. From 1993 to 2002, Norris was a news correspondent for ABC, winning an Emmy Award and a Peabody Award for coverage of 9/11, and in 2002, the journalist joined the NBP evening-news program All Things Considered, becoming the station's first African-American female host and interviewing world leaders, American presidents, Nobel laureates, leading thinkers, and groundbreaking artists. In 2015, Fortune magazine described Norris as "one of [NPR's] biggest stars," and although she stepped down from full-time duties in 2013, she still serves as an occasional host and special correspondent.
Norris is also founder of the Peabody Award-winning The Race Card Project, an NPR series about race relations in the United States, and executive director of The Bridge, the Aspen Institute’s new program on race, identity, connectivity, and inclusion. Throughout her career, Norris has produced in-depth profiles, interviews, and series for national news programs, as well as special reports for National Geographic, Time magazine, and Lifetime television. Norris uncovers secrets about race including in her family. Beyond her journalistic endeavors, Norris is the author of the 2016 memoir The Grace of Silence, in which, among other biographical details, she writes of discovering her father’s shooting by a Birmingham police officer and also maternal grandmother’s job as an itinerant Aunt Jemima.
The Intelligent Conversations: The Power of Words event on October 19 begins with appetizers, desserts, coffee, and a cash bar at 5 p.m., with Norris delivering her keynote address at 6 p.m. and joining Dr. LaDrina Wilson for a question-and-answer period at 7 p.m. Admission is $20-40, and tickets are available by visiting RiverCtr.com and WVIK.org.
