Author Craig Wolff is at work on a forthcoming biography of Willie Mays, tracing the life of the great baseball player from segregated Birmingham to the Major Leagues. His latest book, My Heart Will Cross This Ocean, was written with the mother of Amadou Diallo, an African man who died from bullets fired by New York City police officers. Wolff also plans to talk about how the lingering effects of segregation are connected to Diallo's death. That book won a 2004 Christopher Award, honoring work that "lifts the human spirit."
Wolff, a Rochester alumnus and former reporter for The New York Times, shared a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center. Through his writing and teaching, he is dedicated to revealing the true lives of people who inhabit stories instead of making them caricatures. Currently, he is associate professor of journalism at New York University. Wade Norwood, a Rochester City Council member for 15 years and a Rochester alumnus, will introduce Wolff.
This is the first of this academic year's Neilly Series, known for its roster of speakers who are among the best in their field. The series is supported by the Andrew H. and Janet Dayton Neilly Endowment and the River Campus Libraries at the University of Rochester.
FOR MORE INFORMATION: Contact (585) 275-4461 or log on to www.library.rochester.edu/neillyseries.