Humanitarian and New York Times number-one best-selling author Greg Mortenson will visit the University tomorrow, and on Friday, a musical performance that unites political and personal strife with hip-hop beats will permeate the campus.
On Thursday, ASUO and Cultural Forum will host Greg Mortenson in McArthur Court. His book, Three Cups of Tea, is the inspiring true story of one man’s ambition to establish schools in a region with some of the lowest literacy rates and harshest laws against female education in the world. Through his influence and determination, Mortenson has successfully established schools in some of the most remote regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan, making him “an inspiration” to Darrel Kau, the Cultural Forum’s program coordinator.
“He has had a global influence through his actions. His personal story through Three Cups of Tea and the impact he has had in building schools in rural communities of Afghanistan and Pakistan is awe-inspiring,” Kau said.
Cultural Forum student coordinators plan a diverse array of programs in music, film, performing arts, visual artists and events that reflect contemporary culture. Mortenson’s work is a great example of what they want to “resonate through campus from students to faculty,” Kau said, which led him and ASUO President Sam Dotters-Katz to seek out Mortenson.
“Sam was really excited to have Greg come to campus. The ASUO worked really hard to get him here because he touches on a lot of cultural and local elements at play right now,” ASUO Chief of Staff Andrew Plambeck said.
Mortenson’s work has not been without difficulty. He survived an eight-day armed kidnapping in Pakistan, endured CIA investigations and even received hate mail and death threats from fellow Americans after 9/11 for helping Muslim children get an education. Kau emphasizes Mortenson’s work with education and tolerance, saying Mortenson makes it his “top priority to promote economic development, peace and prosperity,” and that “his efforts resonate at many levels through our own education institution here at the U of O.”
“Greg will bring a broad range of people to his audience, a lot of whom have been touched by his book,” Plambeck said.
Mortenson is also the founder of Pennies For Peace and director of the nonprofit Central Asia Institute, promoting community-based education and literacy programs in remote mountain regions in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Tickets for the event are sold out, but some limited-view seating will be available to those who arrive early. Mortenson will give a 70-minute presentation at 7 p.m. and autograph books afterward.
On Friday, Cultural Forum presents the Seattle-based hip-hop group Blue Scholars. The group has performed with such artists as De La Soul, Slick Rick, Wordsworth, Kanye West, Hieroglyphics and Immortal Technique, and has appeared several times at the Sasquatch music festival. The duo consists of DJ Sabzi and MC Geologic, an unlikely partnership that combines and balances music from two different worlds usually seen distant from one another. Their Web site calls their music “poetic lyricism with beats you can dance to.”
“Blue Scholars have a socially responsible angle to their music and are more of the ‘old-school rap,’ not of the usual ‘bling bling,’” Plambeck said. “They speak to what we are wanting to accomplish here on campus.”
The group will be joined by Common Market, which has shared the stage with the likes of KRS-One and Ghostface Killah. Both will perform for free on the Memorial Quad Lawn at 8 p.m.
[email protected]
Humanitarian, Blue Scholars to visit campus
Daily Emerald
May 5, 2009
More to Discover