Dr. Glenda E. Gill, professor emerita of drama at Michigan Technological University, will present the University's 12th Annual Ralph Ellison Lecture at 3 p.m., on March 28, in the Kellogg Hotel and Conference Center Auditorium.

The lecture, entitled "P. Diddy and Walter Lee Younger: Brothers and Saints," examines Sean "P. Diddy" Combs' Broadway portrayal of character Walter Lee Younger in Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun.

Dr. Gill, a former head of Tuskegee's Department of English, has written White Grease Paint on Black Performers: A Study of the Federal Theatre, 1935-1939 and No Surrender! No Retreat! African American Pioneer Performers of Twentieth-Century American Theater. 

Born in Clarksville, Tenn., and raised in Huntsville, Ala., Dr. Gill has lectured throughout the country and abroad on the history of African-American theatre. She earned her B.S. degree from Alabama A&M University, in Normal, Ala.; her M.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison; and her Ph.D. in English and Theatre from the University of Iowa in Iowa City. Her awards and accolades include fellowships from the Rockefeller Foundation, the Smithsonian Institution and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Each year, the Ralph Ellison Lecture, named after the famed writer and Tuskegee University alumnus, highlights some of today's talented literary authors. The Lecture is co-sponsored by the Department of English and the Center for Continuing Education.  For more information, call (334) 727-8100.