In Celebration of Black & Women's History Months: The 20th Annual Bridge Speaker: Pam Grier

The 20th Annual Bridge Speaker: Pam Grier, March 3, from 11-12:15p.m. at the Tivoli Turnhalle

The Bridge Speaker is an annual event, with 2011 marking the 20th year on our campus. “Bridge” refers to the symbolic bridging of Black History Month in February with Women’s History Month in March. This tradition is an opportunity to share the life experience and leadership of an African-American woman with our entire campus community. The 2011 featured Bridge speaker is actress, author and former Metro student, Pam Grier. As the first Black woman to be featured on the cover of Ms. Magazine in 1975, Grier broke many barriers with her roles in a string of moderately successful women in prison and blaxploitation films such as 1974's Foxy Brown. Her career was revitalized in 1997 after her appearance in Quentin Tarantino's film Jackie Brown. She is one of a few African-American actresses to receive a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress. She has also been nominated for a SAG as well as a Satellite Award for her performance in the iconic film Jackie Brown. She received an Emmy Award nomination for her work in an Animated Program Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child. More recently she appeared in the cable television series The L Word as Kit Porter and occasionally guest-stars in such television series as Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (where she is a recurring character). In 2010, Grier began appearing in a recurring role on the hit science fiction series Smallville as the villain Amanda Waller, also known as White Queen, head agent of Checkmate, a covert operations agency. Also in 2010, she penned her memoir with Andrea Cagan, "Foxy: My Life in Three Acts".