Melissa Harris-Perry, educator and author, will present the keynote address January 16 during Grand Valley's celebration of the life and legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Harris-Perry teaches and conducts research at Wake Forest University as the Maya Angelou Presidential Chair in the Department of Politics and International Affairs, the Department of Women and Gender Studies, the African American Studies Program, and the Program in Environment and Sustainability. She is the founder and president of the Anna Julia Cooper Center, whose mission is to advance justice through intersectional scholarship and action. She is the author of the award-winning "Barbershops, Bibles, and BET: Everyday Talk and Black Political Thought," and "Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America."