Allen University will host a free virtual event on Thursday, October 28, 6:30 pm-8:30 pm to celebrate the life of Ota Benga and Columbia-based author Carrie Allen McCray’s efforts to commemorate his life through her poetry collection, Ota Benga Under My Mother’s Roof. The virtual event will feature a talk by Pulitzer prize-winning author Pamela Newkirk who will discuss her book Spectacle: The Astonishing Life of Ota Benga, which tells the true story of a young African man named Ota Benga, whose controversial exhibition as a “pygmy” at the Bronx Zoo in 1906 drew international attention to the persistence of racial problems in America. This deeply researched biography won the NAACP Image Award, the Huston-Wright Award, and was named a Best Book of the Year by NPR, The Boston Globe, The San Francisco Chronicle, and The Root.

The free event will also include presentations commemorating the life and work of local author Carrie Allen McCray, whose family provided Benga with a loving home following his traumatic experience as a human zoo exhibit. Prior to her death in 2008, McCray completed Ota Benga Under My Mother’s Roof, a collection of poems she wrote to ensure the life and trials of this “strong yet gentle man from the deep Congo forest” would be remembered for generations to come.