Oscar-winning screenwriter, acclaimed filmmaker and Junction City native Kevin Willmott, will be the keynote speaker for “The Art of Democracy” all-day engagement symposium at Kansas State University on Thursday, March 21st. The symposium is co-organized by the office of the Provost and the Center for Engagement and Community Development.

Willmott will present “BlacKkKlansman: A Response to the Resurgence of Overt Racism in America Today” at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, March 21, in the Bluemont Room at the K-State Student Union. No tickets are required and the public is invited to attend.

A professor film at the University of Kansas, WIllmott co-wrote the film “BlacKkKlansman” with director Spike Lee and other collaborators. The film earned the Oscar for best adapted screenplay at the recent 91st Academy Awards ceremony.

In hi keynote address, “The Art of Democracy,” Willmott will discuss how “BlacKkKlansman” explores and exemplifies the rise of racism, Charlottesville, the Muslim travel ban and the government shutdown over funding for the wall. “BlacKkKlansman” is based on the true story of and book by Ron Stallworth, a young African-American police officer who infiltrated a cell of the Ku Klux Klan in Colorado Springs, Colorado, in the late 1970s.

Willmott’s talk is presented by the Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art at Kansas State University in partnership with the university’s Dow Center for Multicultural and Community Studies, the Center for Engagement and Community Development, Department of Art, UFM Community Learning Center and Black Student Union.