Campus & Community

Newsmakers

3 min read

YWCA Boston names Gomes Racial Justice Award winner

The YWCA Boston has named the Rev. Professor Peter J. Gomes the recipient of its 2007 Racial Justice Award. The YWCA’s board and guests will fête Gomes, the Plummer Professor of Christian Morals and Pusey Minister in the Memorial Church, at the 13th annual Women’s Leadership Gala and Benefit Auction, “A Night With the Academy,” on June 13 at the Sheraton Boston Hotel.

The Racial Justice Award is given each year to individuals who further the YWCA Boston’s goal of fighting for racial justice and empowering women.

“Professor Gomes has played an integral role in advocating for women in the ministry as well as in society,” said Sylvia Ferrell-Jones, president and CEO of the YWCA Boston.

Graduate student Mukhi attends U.N. summit

Neha Mukhi, a graduate student in the Department of Environmental Health at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), recently represented U.S. youth and SustainUS, a national organization that empowers youth to create a more sustainable world, at the U.N. Commission on Sustainable Development in New York City. This year’s commission brought together delegates from around the world to create international policy in the areas of energy, climate change, air pollution, and industrial development. Mukhi competed in a nationwide selection process to be chosen as one of 29 SustainUS Agents of Change to travel to New York.

An environmental engineer from India, Mukhi is a master’s of science student at HSPH. At the United Nations, Mukhi and her fellow SustainUS Agents of Change engaged national governments and civil society, presenting a strong unified youth voice for a specific set of proactive international policies and influencing outcomes of the commission.

Kings of strings to honor blues master B.B. King

Guitarists Monster Mike Welch and Jay Geils will apply their trade — and showcase a style inspired by blues master B.B. King — at a May 22 concert in Lowell Lecture Hall. The two-hour performance (which kicks off at 7:30 p.m.) will cap Charles Sawyer’s “History of Blues in America” course, which is offered through the Harvard Extension School. The concert is free and open to the public.

Based in Somerville, Mass., Monster Mike Welch cites King and Muddy Waters as the “twin peaks of blues” and as instrumental in shaping his sound. He performs throughout the country. Geils, meanwhile, scored several top-40 hits with the J. Geils Band, which had enormous success throughout the ’70s and early ’80s with their blend of blues and rock. Geils now performs as a jazz musician.