Photojournalist documents families after Hurricane Katrina

Described as an "activist with a camera," Paula Allen will show and discuss photos she has taken of Hurricane Katrina victims during an event sponsored by the Women's Center and other campus departments.

“Homecoming” is scheduled for Wednesday, October 1, beginning at 7 p.m. in the Kirkhof Center, Grand River Room. The event is free and open to the public.

For more than 20 years, Allen has focused her camera lens on women around the world in war zones, refugee camps and other places where they face oppression with courage. Allen’s Grand Valley lecture centers on three women and their families who were displaced following the 2005 hurricane in New Orleans.

Allen’s work has been published in many national and international magazines. In 1999, she published a bilingual book, Flores en el Desierto/Flowers in the Desert, which documented women in Chile as they searched for relatives who disappeared following the 1973 coup in that country.

Co-sponsors of Allen’s lecture are the College of Interdisciplinary Studies, Office of Multicultural Affairs, Women and Gender Studies, School of Social Work and School of Public and Nonprofit Administration. For more information, call the Women’s Center at x12748.