Penn College's Second Annual 'Soul Food Dinner'

Williamsport, Lycoming County-"Dinner and a movie" will take on a new meaning this month at Pennsylvania College of Technology, where ethnic cuisine will be served alongside a related documentary film.

This year's dinner - scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 26, at Penn's Inn in the college's Bush Campus Center - will feature a screening of "Soul Food Junkies," followed by a question-and-answer session with Byron Hurt, the film's award-winning director.

Admission is free for Penn College students, $5 for members of the public.

Baffled by his father's unwillingness to change his traditional diet in the face of a health crisis, Hurt set out to explore the history and social significance of "soul food" to black cultural identity and its effect on African-American health - good and bad. The campus presentation of his film follows its national broadcast last month as part of PBS' "Independent Lens" series.

The evening's menu will include fried and baked chicken, fried and baked catfish, macaroni and cheese, black-eyed peas, baked sweet potatoes, collard greens, grilled bell peppers, cornbread, peach cobbler, banana pudding, lemon pound cake, Southern-style sweet tea and lemonade.

A former Northeastern University football star and longtime educator in the area of gender-violence prevention, the filmmaker was associate director and founding member of the Mentors in Violence Prevention program, a leading college-based rape and domestic violence prevention initiative.

Over the past decade, Hurt has lectured at more than 100 college campuses and trained thousands of young men and women on issues related to gender, race, sex, violence, music and visual media.

He has been featured in numerous media outlets, including The New York Times; The Washington Post; O, The Oprah Magazine; Vibe Magazine; and Entertainment Weekly. He has also appeared or been heard on CNN, MTV, BET and ABC World News Tonight, among other venues.

For more information about the event, email studentactivities@pct.edu or call 570-327-4763.
(Info from Penn College)