Jacob Holdt, vagabond, photographer and activist, will present "American Pictures," a slide show and live narrative examining race, poverty and privilege in America, on Friday at Princeton University.
Princeton University student organizers hope to raise awareness during Black History Month about the need for a continuing civil rights movement to address racial and social inequality.
Mr. Holdt came to the United States from Denmark in 1971 for a short stay, but ended up hitchhiking over 100,000 miles across America and living in over 400 homes. Selling blood plasma to buy film, Mr. Holdt took thousands of photographs of those who welcomed him into their lives, including serial killers, prostitutes, members of the Ku Klux Klan, and some of the millions of impoverished Americans who today still live on the fringes of society.
Over the past 25 years, "American Pictures" has been shown in over 1,000 locations worldwide including the film festival at Cannes and at 300 American universities.
This event is organized by eight Princeton students who spent fall break traveling throughout the South meeting with civil rights activists and survivors, including victims of the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., children who marched on "Bloody Sunday" in Selma, Ala., and student leaders of the sit-in movement in Greensboro, N.C.
The program will be held 7 p.m. at McCosh 50.
Events to follow on Saturday include a workshop on racism with Mr. Holdt and a panel of student, faculty and community organizers called "Apathy and Activism."
The showing of American Pictures is sponsored by the PACE Center for Community Service, Dialogue@Princeton, the Student Volunteers Council and the Princeton Justice Project.
This is Mr. Holdt’s first time in Princeton since 1986.
