Sonia Sanchez -- international lecturer on black culture and literature, women's liberation, peace and racial justice -- will speak at 4 Sunday afternoon in the Paul Robeson Cultural Center auditorium.

Sanchez is the keynote speaker of the University's 20th annual Black Arts Festival entitled "Honoring the Elders, Empowering the Youth." The series of events between March 17 and April 16 includes films, art exhibits, speakers, dinner dances and a jazz festival.

Sanchez is the author of 13 books including Homecoming, We A BaddDD People, I've Been A Woman: New Selected Poems, 1985 American Book Award winning Homegirls and Handgrenades, and most recently Under A Soprano Sky. She is a contributing editor to Black Scholar and the Journal of African Studies and a recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts and the Outstanding Arts Award from the Pennsylvania Coalition of 100 Black Women.

Sanchez has lectured at more than 500 universities and has traveled to such countries as Cuba, England, Nicaragua, and the People's Republic of China to read her poetry.

The lecture is sponsored by the Paul Robeson Cultural Center, the Black Studies Program, the Center for Women Students, and Counseling and Psychological Services.

Other Black Arts Festival events next week include:

-- Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Lecture featuring Rev. Robert Franklin to be held at 7:30 Tuesday night in the Paul Robeson Cultural Center.

-- Robeson Retrospective Recognition program featuring a lecture and discussion titled "Robeson's Social Consciousness" at 7 Wednesday night in the cultural center.

-- Robeson Retrospective Recognition program featuring a lecture and discussion titled "Robeson as an Intellectual" at 7 Thursday night in the center.

-- Robeson Retrospective Recognition program to include discussion and performances and titled "Robeson: The Artist." at 7:30 Friday night.