Jasmine Guy tapped as guest speaker for NAACP Student Image Awards

Jasmine Guy, a performer and social activist best known for her starring role as Whitley Gilbert in the television series "A Different World," will be the guest speaker for the third annual Old Dominion NAACP Student Image Awards at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 20, in the Mills Godwin Jr. Life Sciences Building Auditorium.

Guy will receive the chapter's Lifetime Achievement Award, presented to an individual "who has gone above and beyond to help all people and in doing so has made a change in our world." The lecture and ceremony are free and open to the public.

This year's ceremony, titled "Honor and Diversity: Connecting the World," will include a special tribute to America's armed forces. Awards also will be presented to the university's top student groups, advisers and community leaders.

Guy has served as the national spokesperson for Perspectives in African American Art, a program that supports emerging visual artists at museums nationwide. She also initiated and financed the dance and arts program at A Place Called Home, a community safe house for approximately 2,000 children in Southcentral Los Angeles. She received six consecutive NAACP Image Awards for her role on "A Different World."

The show enjoyed a successful run on NBC from 1987 to 1993. It was credited with tackling social and political issues rarely explored in TV fiction, and opening television industry doors to unprecedented numbers of young black actors, writers, producers and directors.

Guy also starred in the television mini-series "Queen," Alex Haley's sequel to "Roots," as well as the CBS network movie "Stompin' at the Savoy." Film credits include "Harlem Nights" and "School Daze."

A former member of the Alvin Ailey II Dance Company, Guy has appeared in productions of the Broadway musicals "Grease" and "Chicago."