Susan L. Taylor, editor emerita of Essence magazine and founder of National CARES Mentoring Movement, will deliver the keynote address "A New World is on the Way," Friday, Jan. 16, during Wayne State University's Martin Luther King, Jr. Tribute Luncheon.
The program will begin at 11 a.m. at the Max M. Fisher Music Center, 3711 Woodward Ave., Detroit. Tickets for the program only are $10; tickets for the program and a strolling luncheon are $65. For more details, visit www.govaffairs.wayne.edu, or call (313) 577-0701. Reservations are required and can be made at www.specialevents.wayne.edu/mlktributeluncheon. Net proceeds from this year's event will be donated to Detroit Public Schools through "Adopt a Classroom" program.
"We are the children of the dream," Taylor says. "We are the empowered generations that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the many who sacrificed so greatly to advance this nation had dreamed of. They risked everything that was dear to them -- family, resources, their life -- to make a better world for us."
Essence magazine and Taylor are synonymous, it is the brand she built-as its fashion and beauty editor, as editor-in-chief and editorial director. For 27 years she authored one of the magazine's most popular columns, In the Spirit. For nearly three decades, as the driving force behind one of the most celebrated black-owned businesses of our time, Taylor has become a legend in the magazine publishing world.
She was the first and only African American Woman to be recognized by the Magazine Publishers of America with the Henry Johnson Fisher Award-the industry's highest honor-and the first to be inducted into the American Society of Magazine Editors Hall of Fame. She is the recipient of the NAACP President's Award for visionary leadership and has honorary degrees from more than a dozen colleges and universities.
A fourth-generation entrepreneur, Taylor grew up in Harlem working with her father in his women's clothing store. She founded her own cosmetics company, a first for black women, which led to the beauty editor's position at Essence. She is the author of four books: In the Spirit: The Inspirational Writings of Susan L. Taylor; Lessons in Living; Confirmation: The Spiritual Wisdom That Has Shaped Our Lives, which she coauthored with her husband, Khephra Burns; and her most recent, All About Love, Favorite Selections from In the Spirit on Living Fearlessly.
She founded the National CARES Mentoring Movement in 2006. Its goals include increasing high school graduation rates among African American students; ending the violence in black communities; and ending the over-incarceration of our young. "Creating safe, top-tier schools in every underserved community in this nation is the mandate-and it's doable," says Taylor.
Wayne State University is a premier institution of higher education offering more than 350 academic programs through 13 schools and colleges to more than 31,000 students.