Sidney Poitier will address NSBA Annual Conference
01/08 -- Sidney Poitier has been added to the roster of nationally renowned speakers headlining the 2008 NSBA Annual Conference in Orlando, Fla. He joins retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor; popular radio host, storyteller, and author Garrison Keillor; and television journalist Jim Lehrer as General Session speakers.
Poitier, an actor, director, and author, will speak Monday, March 31. Poitier was the first African-American to win an Oscar for best actor -- for “Lillies of the Field” in 1964. Other notable movies he starred in include “The Heat of the Night, “The Defiant Ones,” and “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.”
Poitier’s memoir, The Measure of a Man, was a national best-seller and an Oprah Winfrey Book Club Selection. Although he was named Knight Commander of the British Empire in 1974, he chooses not to use the title “Sir” to which he is entitled.
O’Connor will address the First General Session, on Saturday, March 29.
The first woman on the Supreme Court, O’Connor was considered a conservative-leaning moderate but provided a decisive swing vote on many important issues during her 25-year tenure, including the vote needed to uphold Roe v. Wade.
O’Connor grew up on a ranch in Arizona and served as a state senator, a judge on the Maricopa County Superior Court, and a judge on the Arizona Court of Appeals before President Reagan appointed her to the Supreme Court in 1981. She was named one of the world’s most powerful women by Forbes magazine.
The Second General Session, on Sunday, will feature Lehrer, the host of “The Newshour with Jim Lehrer” on PBS. He is also the author of 16 novels, two memoirs, and three plays. In 1999, he was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Bill Clinton and first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame.
Keillor, who will speak at the final the final General Session, on Tuesday, April 1, has been the creative force and on-air host of “A Prairie Home Companion” since 1976.
The weekly variety show, distributed nationwide by American Public Media, features “The News from Lake Wobegon,” the fictional town in Minnesota where “all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average.”
Keillor has written a dozen books, including Lake Wobegon Days, Happy To Be Here, Leaving Home, and the newly released Pontoon: A Lake Wobegon Novel.
In addition, the Fellowship Gathering on Sunday morning will feature Lee Woodruff, the co-author, with her husband Bob Woodruff, a former co-anchor of ABC’s “World News Tonight,” of In an Instant: A Family’s Journey of Love and Healing. The best-seller chronicles their family’s difficult ordeal after Bob Woodruff was critically injured by a roadside bomb while covering the war in Iraq in January 2006.
For more information about the NSBA Annual Conference, or to register online, visit www. nsba.org/conference. You may also make hotel reservations at that site but must register for the conference first.
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