Ninth Annual
Quest for Community: A Call to Action
"Art and Innovation: Diverse Visions of Community"

Conference Speakers

Reza Aslan

The first young Muslim intellectual to come on the scene in years, Reza Aslan brings a new, passionate, and much-needed perspective to the national discussion regarding Islam. Aslan is a fellow at the University of Southern California's Center on Public Diplomacy and Middle East analyst for CBS News. In his internationally acclaimed book No god but God: the Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam, as in his lectures and writings, Aslan explores the intricate interplay between faith and politics in the Muslim world, presenting Islam as an ever-evolving faith and culture currently in the midst of a cataclysmic internal battle for reform and modernization.

Nikki Giovanni

Keynote Speaker
Poet; Professor of English, Virginia Tech
Friday, April 17, 2009
9:00–9:50 a.m.

Over the past 25 years, Nikki Giovanni’s outspokenness, in her writing and in person, has brought the eyes of the world upon her. One of our most widely read American poets, she prides herself on being “a black American, a daughter, a mother, a professor of English.” Despite the dramatic changes that have occurred in American society since she roared out of the Black Arts Movement, Giovanni remains determined and committed as ever to the fight for civil rights and equality in education.

A University Distinguished Professor of English at Virginia Tech, Giovanni is also the author of numerous poetry and children’s books, as well as a 2004 nominee for a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for The Nikki Giovanni Poetry Collection.