University Housing will celebrate Black History Month with a cultural dinner featuring award-winning CNN anchor Don Lemon at 5 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 25, in the Brown Ballroom at the Bone Student Center.
At the dinner, Lemon will encourage others to live their lives without fear and overcome obstacles by not allowing anyone to put them in a box based on race, ethnicity or gender. The event will also feature a musical exploration of Louisiana by Rob Juice and his band as well as Cajun cuisine.
Tickets will be available online at the University Housing Services website on Monday, Feb. 3. Tickets are $18.93 for the general public, and $15 for students without a meal plan, faculty and staff. For University meal plan participants, the cost is one meal swipe.
The dinner is sponsored by University Housing Services in collaboration with Campus Dining Services, MECCPAC (A Dean of Students’ Diversity Initiative), Association of Residence Halls, Tri-Towers Area Government and the West Campus Diversity Coalition.
Lemon anchors CNN Newsroom during weekend primetime and serves as a correspondent. Based out of the network’s New York bureau, Lemon joined CNN in September 2006. A news veteran of Chicago, he reported from Chicago in the days leading up to the 2008 presidential election, including an interview with then-Rep. Rahm Emanuel on the day he accepted the position of chief of staff for President-elect Barack Obama.
In 2009, Ebony named him as one of the Ebony Power 150: The most influential Blacks in America. He has won an Edward R. Murrow award for his coverage of the capture of the Washington, D.C., snipers, as well as several Emmy awards.
For CNN, he has reported and anchored on the scene from many breaking news stories, from the George Zimmerman trial and the Boston marathon bombing to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting and Hurricane Gustav in Louisiana. He is also known for his interaction through Facebook and Twitter, and holding politicians and public officials accountable in his No Talking Points segment.
Lemon came to New York after serving as a co-anchor for the 5 p.m. newscast for NBC 5 News in Chicago. In New York he was a correspondent for NBC News, The Today Show and NBC Nightly News. In addition to his reporting in New York, Lemon worked as an anchor on Weekend Today and on MSNBC.
Serving as an adjunct professor at Brooklyn College, Lemon teaches with curriculum designed around new media. He earned a degree in broadcast journalism from Brooklyn College and also attended Louisiana State University.
