Sister Helen Prejean Returns! Fall 2011 Edition

Katie D.

October 9, 2011 - 8:48 PM

Sister Helen Prejean is returning to the University of Oregon for a third year! Sister Helen, author of Dead Man Walking and leading anti-death penalty activist worldwide, will be arriving in Eugene less than a week from today. And, for the third time, I will be assisting in coordinating her entire visit.

If I have learned one powerful lesson in my GTF work, it has to do with event planning at the university. For an event to feel successful, artful, and effortless, it takes weeks of pre-planning and painstaking labor to line up all the moving parts. There is outreach and scheduling, then re-scheduling and handling conflicts, there are priorities to juggle and different constituent groups to keep in mind. There are key outreach opportunities with the Eugene communities, and the shifting balance between commitments and the use of time.

In short, her week-long visit has taken months to arrange. And it has been an enormous adventure.

I can't wait to see Sister Helen again. She has become a wonderful friend over these UO visits, and I count myself lucky to be someone who can claim to know her pretty well. We've arranged a packed itinerary for her this year, and I will be present with her for approximately 75% of her waking hours. During the Sister Helen week, beginning on October 15th, my schedule is all about arranging her events, accompanying her, and handling any last-minute complications.

It's going to be a joy.

If you haven't seen Sister Helen speak before, I hope I'll see you this visit. Sister Helen is a true inspiration: someone who lives her convictions with complete dedication. It is a powerful thing to witness this powerful leader reach out to an audience, and invite a journey through the morals and contradictions of crime and punishment in this complex world. She does not harangue nor condemn. She does not invite controversy. More than any other activist I have met, Sister Helen creates dialogue. She confronts these emotionally charged subjects, and asks people to sit with our collective values.

Besides all this, Sister Helen is hilarious. She is sweet and sarcastic and has an alarming fondness for puns. She's Cajun to her core, and seems to radiate an exuberant humor that is not in keeping with either our traditional views of a nun or of an activist.

In short, Sister Helen is a hero of mine. And I am thrilled to know she will be back in Oregon. She will be speaking in campus and Eugene events, before spending a day each in Salem and Portland. She will meet with UO faculty and UO freshmen, Eugene religious groups and Salem politicians. And I'll be in the thick of things!

So mark your calendars for the week of October 16th. I hope I'll see you then!