Salim Muwakkil

[print-quality version]

MONMOUTH, Ill.--Salim Muwakkil, a senior editor of Chicago's In These Times magazine, will be the featured speaker Jan. 25 at a Monmouth College luncheon in memory of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

The program, which is free and open to the public, will begin at noon in the Whiteman-McMillan Highlander Room of the college's Stockdale Center. Reservations are required. An optional luncheon is available for $6.50. Reservations for the meal or program should be made by email to Ruby Pentsil-Bukari, director of intercultural life, at rpentsilbukari@monm.edu, or by phone at 309-457-2241.

Muwakkil, who will speak on the topic "Emerging Black Leadership," currently teaches a seminar on Race, Media, and Politics for the Associated Colleges of the Midwest's Urban Studies program in Chicago. He is a frequent contributing columnist to the Chicago Tribune.

As an editor for In These Times since 1984, Muwakkil has forged a reputation as one of the country’s most insightful writers on issues of African-American culture and politics. A Crime and Communities Media Fellow of the Open Society Institute, he is currently working on a documentary titled "Chicago Gangs: An American Story" and writing the text for a book of photographs documenting the tenure of Harold Washington, Chicago’s first black mayor.

Muwakkil started his journalism career as reporter for the Associated Press in Newark, N.J., shortly before graduating from Rutgers University with a B.A. in political science. He soon moved on to become a copy editor and then managing editor at Muhammad Speaks-Bilalian News, the largest black-owned publication in the country.

Muwakkil has written for the Washington Post, Chicago Reader, The Progressive, Newsday, Cineaste, Chicago Magazine, the Baltimore Sun, Z Magazine, the Toronto Star, Emerge Magazine, The Black Scholar, the Philadelphia Inquirer and Utne Reader.

Muwakkil has won a variety of journalism awards including the "Top Ten Media Heroes of 1994," from the Institute of Alternative Journalism, the "Black Rose Achievement Award for 1997," from the League of Black Women, the 2001 Studs Terkel Award for Journalistic Excellence from the Chicago-based Community Media Workshop and the 2004 Lillian Award for Excellence in Journalism, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority.

From 1986 to 1990 he taught journalism at Chicago's Columbia College. He has also been an adjunct professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago's Film Center, Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism and the University of Illinois in 2001.

Released by the Office of College Communications
Barry McNamara, Associate Director of College Communications
Phone: 309-457-2117
Fax: 309-457-2330