Upcoming Events
2025 Kaleidoscope Awards for Literary Excellence
April 17, 2025 at the Hyatt Regency Atlanta
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Kaleidoscope Awards for Literary Excellence
April 17, 2025
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HYATT REGENCY ATLANTA
265 Peachtree Street Atlanta, GA 30303 - Thursday April 17, 2025 / Reception at 6:00 PM Dinner at 7:00 PM EDT
Throughout their lifetime, C.T. and Octavia Vivian collected more than 6,000 books on African American literature, history, poetry, and similar works. To honor their legacy and advance the vision, The C.T. Vivian Foundation Inc. is hosting a fundraising dinner at the Hyatt Regency Atlanta on April 17th, 2025, in Atlanta, Georgia. This benefit will honor best-selling authors who have made exceptional contributions to the African American experience.
2025 AWARDEES:
BERNARD LAFAYETTE, JR.
Dr. Bernard LaFayette, Jr. is a renowned Civil Rights Movement activist, minister, educator, and global advocate for Kingian Nonviolence. As a co-founder of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), leader in the Nashville Sit-Ins and Freedom Rides, and director of the Selma Voter Registration Project, he has been at the forefront of nonviolent social change. Dr. LaFayette served under Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as National Program Administrator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and National Coordinator of the Poor People’s Campaign. A Harvard-educated scholar, he has held leadership roles at institutions such as the University of Rhode Island, Emory University, and the Martin Luther King Jr. Center, all while advancing nonviolence education worldwide.
Dr. LaFayette’s legacy includes numerous publications, awards, and honors, such as the Mahatma Gandhi International Award for Peace, the National Civil Rights Museum Freedom Award, and the “Key to the City of Nashville.” He continues to inspire through his lectures, training programs, and advocacy, with his influence reaching communities in South Africa, Colombia, and Nigeria. His story and contributions are immortalized in documentaries, books, and a street named in his honor in Selma, Alabama. Married to Kate Bulls, he is a proud father and grandfather, embodying a lifetime commitment to justice, peace, and nonviolence.
JELANI COBB
Jelani Cobb joined the Columbia Journalism School faculty in 2016 and became Dean in 2022. He has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 2015 and was a finalist for the 2018 Pulitzer Prize in Commentary.
Dr. Cobb has a B.A. in English from Howard University and completed his M.A. and doctorate in American History at Rutgers University in 2003.
He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the American Journalism Project and the Board of Trustees of the New York Public Library. In 2023, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.
MARGARET BURNHAM
Professor Margaret Burnham is an internationally recognized authority on civil rights, comparative constitutional law, and international criminal law. She serves as the faculty co-director of Northeastern Law’s Center for Law, Equity and Race (CLEAR) and is the founder and director of the Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project (CRRJ). Through her work with CRRJ, Professor Burnham has led investigations into racially motivated violence during the Jim Crow era, ensuring that the lives of individuals whose murders were overlooked or discounted are acknowledged and documented.
Her groundbreaking book, Hands Now Known: Jim Crow’s Legal Executioners, unearths spectacular truths about lynching while exposing the chronic, unpredictable, and pervasive everyday violence that defined Black life under Jim Crow. This work brought to light the depth and breadth of systemic oppression, making tangible the stories of individuals whose murders were ignored for decades and revealing the far-reaching impact of racial terror.
Professor Burnham began her career at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. In 1993, she was appointed by Nelson Mandela to an international human rights commission tasked with investigating violations within the African National Congress. She joined Northeastern University School of Law in 2002, where she continues to be a leading voice in the pursuit of justice and equity.
PATRICK PHILLIPS
Patrick Phillips is the author of Blood at the Root: A Racial Cleansing in America, which was named a best book of the year by the New York Times, the Boston Globe, and Smithsonian, and received an American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation. He is also the author of four poetry collections, including Elegy for a Broken Machine, which was a finalist for the National Book Award, and Song of the Closing Doors, which was published by Alfred A. Knopf in 2022. Phillips has also received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Guggenheim Foundation, the Carnegie Foundation, and the Cullman Center for Writers at the New York Public Library. He is the Boland Professor of English and Creative Writing at Stanford.
Honorary Host Committee
George Andrews
Jay Bailey
Taylor Branch
Bill Campbell
Rev. Gerald Durley
Valerie Jackson
Tayari Jones
Hank Klibanoff
Amanda Brown Olmstead
Elisabeth Omilami Jay Scott
Dominic Stokes
Ernie Suggs
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