Kenyan writer, UCI prof celebrates 70th birthday

UCI is pulling out all the stops to celebrate distinguished professor and award-winning Kenyan novelist Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s 70th birthday tonight, and the public is invited.

Chancellor Michael Drake and Kenya’s ambassador to the United Nations, Zachary Dominic Muburi-Muita, will give opening remarks at 5:30 p.m. in UCI’s Crystal Cove Auditorium.

Civil rights activist and UC Santa Cruz professor Angela Davis will give the keynote address.

At 7 p.m., Thiong’o will sign copies of his California Book Awards Gold Medal-winning “Wizard of the Crow.” There will be a poetry reading from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. followed by a Chinese music and African dance performance from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Thiong’o is a UCI distinguished professor of English and Comparative Literature and director of the International Center for Writing and Translation at UCI. The event is free and open to the public. For more information, call (949) 824-9629.

— Joseph Serna