Actress Ruby Dee will offer insights on acting and activism

As a young girl growing up in Harlem, those around Ruby Dee already sensed that the vibrant youth had something very special. Family, teachers and friends encouraged Dee's ways of expressing herself and her lively imagination. \n"They recognized I had a flair for expression -- a creative spark," Dee said. \nDee, along with her husband Ossie Davis, will offer her experience and talents to the IU community as the keynote speakers at the dedication of the Theatre and Drama Center and the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center .\nDee grew to become an accomplished actress, writer and activist. She has won numerous awards on stage, screen and television. In the mid-1940s, she performed with the American Negro Theater and went on to star in a long list of works from "No Way Out" (1950), and "A Raisin in the Sun" (1961) to Spike Lee's "Do the Right Thing" (1989) and "Jungle Fever" (1991). She has had seven Emmy award nominations and won an Emmy in 1991 for her performance in "Decoration Day." \nRobin Roy Gress, director of university ceremonies, said Dee is a good role model for everyone. \n"Ruby Dee is so far from a one-dimensional person," Gress said. "She can do everything," \nDee is often found working alongside her husband, Davis, who she married in 1948. Both have balanced their lasting romance with successful and demanding careers. The two wrote "With Ossie and Ruby: In This Life Together," an autobiography that addresses how they've made their marriage work. \n"She is my wife, and I love her," Davis said. "She is a marvelous performer, and I am glad to be associated with her." \n When committee members gathered to choose the speaker for dedication of the center, the duo of Davis and Dee was at the top of the list. Gress said the committee was doubtful that it would actually be able to book the couple. But it was delighted to find that not only would the couple speak at the ceremony but also provide an evening program and conduct an acting workshop.\n"We're really not 'speakers,'" Dee said. "We entertain, we read and talk and present ideas. We offer a smorgasbord. Theater is about life and sex and religion and politics -- all life. There really is no shortage of material."\nSenior Christina McDougall, a member of the African American Choral Ensemble, said she is excited about the opening of the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center. \n"There are not many centers like this around this country," McDougall said. "It is incredible to be a part of an organization that promotes diversity. The facility is incredible." \nThe dedication is one of few engagements that Davis and Dee will partake in. They are not on tour, but the event was important and exciting for them. \n"We expect to be inspired as much as we might inspire," Dee said. \nComing to a university setting is a way for Dee to offer her insight to actors and actresses just starting out. \n"The new and the old need to get together and exchange information," Dee said. "It's how the arts move forward in their purpose. It never comes from just one place. We are continually taking yesterday into today and today looking into the future."\nDee advises young actors and actresses to keep open minds and explore their surroundings and each other in efforts to share information. \n"Pay attention to time and things around you," she said. "Have a desire to know what life is all about. Read, focus on relationships, dig behind the headlines, look for more than one point of view."\nAs a passionate activist, Dee has fought for social and civil rights throughout her lifetime. She has brought activism into her acting career by choosing roles that bring attention to social causes. Like acting, Dee traces her activist roots to her childhood in Harlem and recollects memories of her mother participating in picket lines.\n"People were always fighting to make a difference in one way or another," she said.\nWith the close timing of the dedication of the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center and Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Davis and Dee can further help us reflect on King's message, Gress said, citing their role in civil rights and participation in the 1963 March on Washington.\nDee said King's words are more necessary than ever before. \n"We really need to pay attention to what Martin Luther King Jr. wrote and thought," Dee said. "We don't focus on the many other aspects of life, politics, and economics that he talked about." \nDee carries her own message of togetherness and harmony. \n"We need to look at the similarities as human beings, as opposed to differences," she said, "The more we see of people of the world, the more we see how much we are alike."\n"Everyone you meet is some kind of model for you. We teach each other as we touch everyday"