Spike Lee to Address Campus Community

Filmmaker Spike Lee will speak to the Skidmore community Friday, Feb. 8, in a gathering to celebrate Black History Month. The talk is scheduled at 4 p.m. in the intramural gym of the Sports and Recreation Center. Admission is free and open to any member of the College community who has obtained an advance ticket. Tickets are available in the Office of Leadership Activities, Case Center.

Lee has directed and produced 10 feature films from 1986 to 1997. These include "She's Gotta Have It" (1986), which earned the Prix de Jeunesse Award at the 1986 Cannes Film Festival; and "Do the Right Thing" (1989), which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and won the Los Angeles Film Critics Association's award for Best Film and Director.

In addition to feature films, Lee has directed and produced music videos for such artists as Miles Davis, Chaka Khan, Tracy Chapman, Anita Baker, Public Enemy, Bruce Hornsby, and Michael Jackson. His TV projects have included a documentary for HBO titled "4 Little Girls: Bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church Birmingham, Alabama," and an Emmy Award-winning piece on former Georgetown basketball Coach John Thompson for HBO/Real Sports.

In addition, Lee has written six books on the making of films. He also wrote Best Seat in the House: A Basketball Memoir (Crown Publishers, Inc., 1997), a chronicle of Lee's love affair with basketball and in particular, the New York Knicks. His newest book is a children's story due this year from Simon & Schuster and titled Please, Baby, Please.

A native of Atlanta, Ga., who was raised in Brooklyn, Lee is a 1979 graduate of Morehouse College and earned an MFA in film production at New York University.
Lee's visit to Skidmore is co-sponsored by the Student Speakers Bureau, Ujima, the Multicultural Student Affairs Office, the Office of the President, and the Convocations and College Events Committee.