Film director and and Oscar-winning screenwriter Kevin Willmott will speak Sunday April 28th at 2 p.m. at the C.L. Hoover Opera House. A professor of film at the University of Kansas, WIllmott is the first speaker in the new Hoover-Koken Foundation Lecture Series in Junction City.

Willmott grew up in Junction City and received a Bachelor of Art degree in Drama from Marymount College in Salina. He received a Master of Fine Art degree in Dramatic Writing from New York University, Tisch School of the Arts.

The topic of his speech will be “Why I Love Junction City.” After the lecture he will be available for a meet and greet in the Walker Reception Hall at the C.L. Hoover Opera House.

Admission will be free on the 28th, however, those attending will be asked to make a free-will offering to a local charity or charities designated by each speaker. The two local charities designated by Willmott to split the proceeds of the free-will offering from audience members will be St. Francis Xavier Catholic School and the Junction CIty – Geary County Martin Luther King Committee.

Willmott received an Oscar Award for BlackKkKlansman along with co-writers Spike Lee, Charlie Wachtel and David Rabinowitz for Best Adapted Screenplay.

The R2B4 Bramlage Family Foundation and the Hoover-Koken Foundation are jointly sponsoring the lecture series that will be held at the C.L. Hoover Opera House.