Monday, January 14, 2002

WILMINGTON, NC- Dramatist Jim Lucas will be the featured performer at UNC Wilmington’s 2002 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemoration Event at 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 24, in Kenan Auditorium. The event is free and open to the public, but advance tickets will be required. Call the Kenan Auditorium Box Office at (910) 962-3500 for tickets.

Mr. Lucas has received acclaim across the nation for his stirring and dramatic recitations and interpretive readings depicting the life and times of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

A student of the teachings of Dr. King, Mr. Lucas is an advocate of Dr. King’s philosophy of non-violent civil action to affect social change. Like Dr. King, he participated in local protests and demonstrations in the 60’s to achieve school integration in his hometown of Lake Providence, CA.

In August 1983, he attended the 20th Anniversary of the March on Washington. It was during that march that he received the inspiration to learn and later recite Dr. King’s speeches. Since then, he has traveled nationwide delivering various renditions of Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream,” “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop,” “A Knock at Midnight,” and excerpts of the Letter from Birmingham Jail in a dramatic one-man show.

His resemblance to and interpretation of Dr. King has been called remarkable, awe inspiring, uncanny, and soulful. He performs the dynamic readings for keynote observance programs and in one-of-a-kind solo performances. Jim Lucas is committed to inspiring people to dream.

NOTE TO MEDIA: For more information, contact Dr. Joanne Nottingham, director of minority affairs, (910) 962-3832, nottinghamj@uncwil.edu. A photo of Mr. Lucas suitable for downloading and printing is available on the UNCW News and Events page at www.uncwil.edu/news/