Coming to Ithaca
Glover's tie to ILR is Cornell trustee Raynor '72
Danny Glover and ILR?
Who knew?
ILR Professor Rick Hurd, that's who.
"Bruce and Danny served together on the board of TransAfrica for a long time," said Hurd, host of movie star Glover's day-long visit to ILR and Cornell Tuesday.
"Bruce" is Bruce Raynor '72, a Cornell trustee. He is teaching "Contemporary Labor Issues" with Hurd to undergraduates this semester at ILR. TransAfrica is a research, education, and advocacy center dedicated to global justice for the African world.
Tuesday, Glover meets at ILR with students, speaks at Cornell's Africana Studies and Research Center, and talks with students, faculty and staff across campus.
Glover is a worker advocate, producer and political activist. Worldwide, he is perhaps best known as an actor. He has appeared in dozens of big screen and television movies, including "Lethal Weapon" and "The Color Purple."
Raynor is a former executive vice president of SEIU and former president of Workers United (2009-2011), UNITE-HERE (2004-2009) and UNITE (2001-2004). He and Glover began their friendship when they traveled to rural Mexico to meet with workers there who made jeans.
"We organized the plant after a three-year struggle," Raynor said, and the two went on to "lots of campaigns all over North America and globally since."
Glover has family ties to unions. Several of his relatives worked in a curtain plant in Georgia, where Glover spent many summers at his grandparents' farm.
Glover, as part of his campus visit, talks 5 to 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at Africana. More information about "Race, Activism, and Art: A Conversation with Danny Glover" is available at http://events.cornell.edu/event/race_art_activism_a_conversation_with_danny_glover.
Tickets are limited, but the talk will be available as a livestream at http://www.facebook.com/CornellCAS.
Marc Bayard, executive director of The Worker Institute at Cornell, part of ILR, will be speaking with Glover as part of a panel discussion.
On Monday, two films Glover produced will be shown in the Film Forum (B21) at the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts, 430 College Ave. Screenings are free and open to the public.
"The Black Power Mixtape 1967-75" will be shown at 4:30 p.m. "Bamako" will be shown at 7 p.m. The films were be introduced and discussion will be facilitated after each showing. Glover will not make appearances in Ithaca until Tuesday.