Langston Hughes symposium reaches capacity; Glover performance sold out

LAWRENCE -- The Langston Hughes international symposium at the University of Kansas will have a full house for nearly all events.

The Danny Glover performance at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 7, at the Lied Center has sold out. At 6:45 p.m., all remaining seats will be opened to those waiting for ticket vouchers. The program is free to the public with vouchers, which became available at box offices on campus Jan. 21.

"We expect some seats to be available because not everyone who has picked up a voucher may be able to use it," said Maryemma Graham, symposium director. The Lied staff will accommodate as many as possible.

In addition, the "Let America Be America Again" symposium, Feb. 7 to 10 at the Kansas Union, has reached capacity with 625 registrants, including 130 registered for the teacher's workshop on Saturday.

"We have had wonderful response to the symposium," said JoAnn Smith, dean of continuing education. "The geographic range of registrants speaks strongly about the import of this symposium."

Smith reports that nearly 300 symposium registrants are from Lawrence, more than 100 from Kansas communities, more than 200 from 33 other states and a dozen from nine other countries.

"The symposium and related events in this community began with the vision of Maryemma Graham in the English department, who started her career at KU as a Langston Hughes visiting professor," Smith said. "Continuing Education has provided staff and administrative effort. As symposium director, Dr. Graham has provided the perspective, the spark and the drive that kept the momentum going -- especially when the Sept. 11 events left us uncertain about what to expect."

Donors from KU and the community provided gifts and grants totaling nearly $200,000 to the KU Endowment Langston Hughes Symposium Fund. Those gifts provided scholarships for more than 200 registrants, allowed the symposium to offer several events free to the public and reduced the general cost of the symposium to registrants.

Conference planners estimated that events drawing more than 80 speakers from the United States, Europe, Africa and Asia would cost about $200,000 and require a $250 registration fee. Donor gifts reduced registration costs to $75 for those registered before Jan. 18 and $100 for those registered later.

Graham said the symposium is only the beginning of plans for a national poetry project. "We are starting with Langston Hughes and hope to create a national poetry project that will reach hundreds of communities, eventually encouraging thousands of youngsters and adults to discover the power of poetry in their lives."

The symposium is part of several centennial celebrations planned in Lawrence to recognize the contributions to American literature of the poet whose childhood home was in Lawrence. Born Feb. 1, 1902, in Joplin, Mo., Hughes died in May 1967 in New York City.