1808 bicentennial commemoration to be held Oct. 23

The Center for American Literary Studies and the George and Ann Richards Civil War Era Center will sponsor an 1808 bicentennial commemoration on Oct. 23 on the University Park campus.
 
This event recognizes the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the legal slave trade in the United States. The headlining event will be a lecture by Sylviane A. Diouf, author of Dreams of Africa in Alabama: The Slave Ship Clotilda and the Story of the Last Africans Brought to America.” A mini-marathon read-in of documents and literature related to slavery and its legacy also will be held. 

Diouf, who is with the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, will present "The Transatlantic Slave Trade: The Human Story," at 4 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 23, in 207 Henderson South.
 
A read-in will be held from 1 to 3:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 23, on the steps of Pattee Library. The read-in features documents related to the slave trade. Readers are members of the University and Centre County communities, including Penn State graduate and undergraduate students, faculty and deans; State College High School students; a Schlow librarian; the mayor of State College; and Sue Paterno. Each will read a two-five minute excerpt from the documents, and bring alive the literature of the slave trade to participants and passers-by at Penn State.
 
Both events are free to the public.