- Posted in All University
- Category: Campus News
LINCOLN UNIVERSITY, PA ~Lincoln University will host an HIV/AIDS Awareness Day on Monday, August 20 at The Thurgood Marshall Living Learning Center at 10 a.m. followed in the evening by Tony winning actress Sheryl Lee Ralph, who will perform her one-woman show “Sometimes I Cry” at 7 in Manuel Rivero Hall.
The day’s event also will feature a panel that will discuss living with HIV/AIDS at 1 p.m. in Dickey Hall Auditorium. The panel includes William Brawner of Family Planning Council in Philadelphia; Marvelyn Brown, an HIV consultant from New York; and Dr. Roberta Laguerre, clinical director of the Pediatric HIV/AIDS program at St. Christopher’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
Another feature of the event enables Lincoln University students to take rapid HIV testing administered by the Mazzoni Center of Philadelphia.
Ralph’s award winning body of work includes creating and originating the role of Deena Jones on Broadway in the landmark musical Dreamgirls, which earned her both a Tony and Drama Best Award nomination for Best Actress.
After Dreamgirls, Ralph turned her attention to music, television and film. She scored a top-ten selling dance hit in the mid-80s with the infectious anthem In the Evening, and again in the `90s with her remake of “Here Comes the Rain Again.”
Her extensive film credits include Sister Act II with Whoopi Goldgerg, The Flintstones with Rosie O’Donell,The Mighty Quinn with Denzel Washington, Mistress with Robert De Niro, and Distinguished Gentlemanwith Eddie Murphy.
Ralph is the writer and director of “Sometimes I Cry,” a complex and thought-provoking play illustrating the heartbreaking, yet inspiring real life stories of culturally diverse women whose lives unravel as they cope with their HIV/AIDS reality.
Ralph uses her remarkable talent to poignantly bring these women to life in a way that touches the heart, leaving audiences deeply moved and encouraged to know their status.
The show is free and open to Lincoln University faculty, staff and students.
Student Life and Development is sponsoring the event to assist new student orientation and transition week. Support came from funds provided to The Women’s Center through the Family Planning Council-Circle of Care of Philadelphia as part of a grant awarded by the Philadelphia Department of Health-AACO Special Minority HIV Services Initiatives.
For additional information, contact Michaile Rainey at (484) 365-7244 or e-mail mrainey@lincoln.edu.
Founded in 1854, Lincoln University is a premier, historically Black University that combines the best elements of a liberal arts and sciences-based undergraduate core curriculum and selected graduate programs to meet the needs of those living in a highly technological and global society. The University is nationally recognized as a major producer of African Americans with undergraduate degrees in the physical sciences (biology, chemistry and physics); computer and informational sciences; biological and life sciences. Lincoln has an enrollment of 2,423 undergraduate and graduate students.