WRITER RICHARD RODRIGUEZ TO DELIVER PRESIDENT'S LECTURE OCT. 7

Brown is not a primary color like red or blue, author and essayist Richard Rodriguez says. It's not even a secondary one, like the purple you get by combining those two hues. In fact, to get a really good shade of brown, several colors must be mixed together and when all colors are combined, brown, not black, is the result.

Rodriguez uses color as a metaphor for diversity in America and brings this unique outlook on race to his President's Lecture, titled "Brown: The Last Discovery of America," at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 7, in the North/Center cafeterias in Webb University Center, 49th Street and Bluestone Avenue.

The lecture is free and open to the public and parking is available in Lot 27 at the corner of Elkhorn Avenue and 49th Street.

The talk is also in connection with "Creative Migrations: New Writing from the Global Diaspora," the 27th Old Dominion University Literary Festival, which features a variety of readings, dialogues, workshops, and conversations by nationally known authors with students and residents of Hampton Roads, Monday through Friday, Oct. 4-8.

Best known for his landmark autobiography "Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez," he will discuss his latest book, "Brown: The Last Discovery of America."

Rodriguez is also an editor at Pacific News Service, and a contributing editor for Harper's Magazine, U.S. News and World Report, and the Sunday "Opinion" section of The Los Angeles Times. He has published numerous articles in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The American Scholar, Time, Mother Jones, and The New Republic, as well as other publications.

Rodriguez received a 1997 George Foster Peabody Award for his essays on American life for the PBS program NewsHour With Jim Lehrer. His other awards include the Frankel Medal from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the International Journalism Award from the World Affairs Council of California.

For more information, call 683-3114.