BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Join Illinois Wesleyan University in welcoming the multi-talented Dick Gregory to the annual Soul Food Dinner on Sunday, Feb. 15.
The dinner will be held at center court in the Hansen Student Center (300 E. Beecher St., Bloomington) at 5:30 p.m. At 6:30 p.m., Gregory will deliver his speech, “The World According to Dick Gregory: An Evening of Humor and Humanity.”
Press availability with Gregory is scheduled at 4:30 p.m. in the Student Senate meeting room on the second floor of the Hansen Student Center.
Tickets for the dinner are $10, and IWU students can use their meal exchange privileges. Sponsored by the IWU Student Senate, the keynote speech is free and open to the public.
Throughout his life, Gregory has taken on many titles: comedian, civil rights activist, author, philosopher, actor, nutritionist, recording artist, anti-drug advocate and cancer survivor. However, he is best known for his social satire and comedy, which he first performed while serving in the army in the 1950s. Upon moving to Chicago to pursue a professional career in comedy, Gregory and contemporaries such as Bill Cosby, Godfrey Cambridge and Nipsey Russell avoided performing minstrel comedy, which pokes fun at stereotypes of African Americans. Their redirection of the comedy scene left white audiences with a new perception of African-American comedians.