Gay’s work garners international acclaim for its reflective, no-holds-barred exploration of feminism and social criticism. Gay will also be signing books at tonight’s event. That Mellon Foundation grant has funded a number of initiatives in the past two years, including some research projects. “We invited her largely because of the things she has written about the importance of communication, and the voice that she has for student-aged people (18-22) on issues of how to communicate and the need to communicate and to do so responsibly, and powerfully and effectively,” said Ericksen. Ericksen told the KMRS Community Connection why the students wanted to bring the best selling author of “Bad Feminist” to campus. Janet Ericksen is Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs at the University of Minnesota Morris and wrote the successful grant that is bringing Gay to Morris. Friday in the Edson Auditorium of the Student Center on the University of Minnesota Morris campus. New York Times contributor Roxane Gay has penned a column in defense of humorlessness in which she argues that black women like actress Jada Pinkett Smith shouldn’t have to tolerate jokes made at their expense like the one Chris Rock told at the Oscars on Sunday, which prompted Will Smith to charge the stage and smack the comedian in the face. A moderated conversation with essayist, fiction writer and New York Times columnist Roxane Gay will be held 7 p.m.
