[284] Author/Journalist George Curry Visits MTSU for Free Feb. 10 Lecture and Book Signing as Part of Black History Month Events

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Feb. 2, 2010
EDITORIAL CONTACT: Lisa L. Rollins, 615-898-2919, or lrollins@mtsu.edu

AUTHOR/JOURNALIST GEORGE CURRY VISITS MTSU FOR FREE FEB. 10
LECTURE AND BOOK SIGNING AS PART OF BLACK HISTORY MONTH EVENTS

(MURFREESBORO)—As part of its 2010 celebration of Black History Month, MTSU will serve as host to journalist and author George Curry, who will deliver a free public lecture at 1 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 10, in the Keathley University Center Theater.
Currently the author of a weekly syndicated column for the National Newspaper Publishers Association and “Beyond the Spin,” a column for the Philadelphia Inquirer, Curry is a former editor-in-chief of Emerge magazine, which won more than 40 journalism awards during his seven-year tenure as its chief.
A native of Tuscaloosa, Ala., Curry also is past president of the American Society of Magazine Editors and the first African American to hold the association's top office. Before taking over as editor of Emerge, he served as New York bureau chief and as a Washington correspondent for the Chicago Tribune. Prior to joining the Tribune in 1983, Curry worked for 11 years as a reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and for two years as a reporter for Sports Illustrated.
Curry’s MTSU visit, in addition to his free public lecture, will include a 2:30 p.m. meeting with mass communication students and professors. He also will be honored with an open reception and book-signing event at 3 p.m. on the first floor of the John Bragg Mass Communication Building.
“George Curry’s stop at MTSU is significant not only for the community and Black History Month, but for our students especially,” observed Dr. Dwight E. Brooks, director, MTSU School of Journalism. “He always has a message, and for those in journalism—and particularly magazine journalism—it’s an especially relevant one.
“The students, in fact, are the driving force behind his visit here,” Brooks continued. “He really stresses that students ignore some of the advice they hear often, such as the call to ‘think outside the box.’ Instead, Curry tells them to throw the box away or they’ll merely end up inside another box. He encourages students to make good choices, and that’s a good lesson.”
Beyond serving as the top editor for the NNPA News Service from 2001 to 2007, Curry, in 1977, was the founding director of the St. Louis Minority Journalism Workshop. Seven years later, he became founding director of the Washington Association of Black Journalists' annual high school journalism workshop, and in February 1990, he organized a similar workshop in New York City.
The recipient of honorary doctorates from both Kentucky State University and Lane College in Jackson, Tenn., Curry’s work with aspiring journalists extended beyond the United States. He has conducted journalism workshops for teens in Germany, and in 1995, he directed a program that brought together college students in the U.S. and those studying journalism in Senegal to produce two newspapers for the African/African-American Summit in Dakar, Senegal. His work in journalism has also taken him to Egypt, England, France, Cuba, Ghana, Nigeria, Mexico, Canada and Italy.

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“George Curry has made countless contributions to journalism, many of which are especially relevant for African Americans, and we are honored and pleased to have such a distinguished journalist visit us,” Brooks added.
Curry’s campus visit, as part of Black History Month, is co-sponsored by the MTSU School of Journalism, in conjunction with the Distinguished Lecture Fund, the Seigenthaler Chair of Excellence and the Office of Marketing and Communications.
For more information about Curry’s visit, please e-mail Brooks at dbrooks@mtsu.edu.
For more information about Black History Month activities at MTSU, please call Vincent Windrow at 615-898-2831. Or, access the Black History Month site online at http://www.mtsu.edu/aahm/.




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• ATTENTION, MEDIA: To request an interview with Curry or MTSU’s Brooks, please contact Lisa L. Rollins in the Office of News and Public Affairs at lrollins@mtsu.edu or by calling 615-898-2919.






With three Nobel Prize winners among its alumni and former faculty, Middle Tennessee State University confers master’s degrees in 10 areas, the Specialist in Education degree, the Doctor of Arts degree and the Doctor of Philosophy degree. MTSU is ranked among the top 100 public universities in the nation in the Forbes “America’s Best Colleges” 2009 survey.