MLK Week to feature conversation with journalist Lisa Ling

The University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s MLK Week celebration will feature a moderated conversation with Lisa Ling, executive producer and host of “This is Life” on CNN.

The university will honor the legacy of the iconic civil rights leader with a series of events Jan. 17-21. The 2022 MLK Week theme, “When the problems of the world are gigantic in extent and chaotic in detail, give us the power of endurance,” is inspired by a quote by Martin Luther King Jr. The celebration will offer events for students, faculty, staff and the Lincoln community.

For more information, click here.

The week will culminate with a virtual MLK Commemoration at 6 p.m. Jan. 19. The event will feature a moderated conversation with Ling.

For five seasons, Ling executive produced and hosted “Our America” on OWN (Oprah Winfrey Network). Ling embedded in a Midwest town ravaged by an onslaught of heroin, got exclusive access inside an anti-gay religious movement, witnessed the manifestation of PTSD in returning veterans of war, and went undercover to investigate the sex trafficking of minors in the nation’s capital. She has also profiled Americans living beneath the poverty line for the first time and people serving unimaginably lengthy prison sentences for crimes they did not commit.

More recently, Ling reports on nonconformist lifestyles across the nation in “This is Life with Lisa Ling.” The documentary series highlights extraordinary (and sometimes dangerous) communities — from ambitious young San Franciscans seeking to become the next Mark Zuckerberg, to the outlaw lives of “one-percenters” in the Mongols Motorcycle Club.

“I have always believed that the more we know about each other, the more evolved we become,” Ling said about the intent of the series.

Additionally, Ling is the co-author of “Mother, Daughter, Sister, Bride: Rituals of Womanhood” and “Somewhere Inside: One Sister’s Captivity in North Korea and the Other’s Fight to Bring Her Home,” which she wrote with her sister, Laura.

“This year, we hope to highlight the importance of endurance in the ongoing path toward equity and inclusion,” said Nkenge Friday, chair of the university’s MLK Week committee. “Having Lisa Ling as our speaker is important as her role in the world of journalism and human rights has proved informative in shedding such a necessary light in understanding the pervasiveness of inequality and the need for social advocacy.”

The 2022 Chancellor’s Fulfilling the Dream Award will be presented during the commemoration.

For more information and to RSVP, click here.