LeVar Burton Receives Children’s Media Award at Tufts
LeVar Burton, actor, entertainer and the host and executive producer of the highly acclaimed PBS children’s television series “Reading Rainbow,” was honored last week at Tufts University’s sixth Eliot-Pearson Awards for Excellence in Children’s Media.
The Eliot-Pearson Awards for Excellence in Children’s Media, cosponsored by the Communications and Media Studies Program (CMS) and the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development at Tufts, are given to organizations, individuals or companies with a commitment to innovation, diversity, non-violence and developmentally appropriate media. Nominations are made in categories that include television, film, interactive media and media literacy and advocacy.
Burton was the host and executive producer of “Reading Rainbow” for 26 years and helped create a generation of Americans who are now passionate readers. Over the past three decades he has also proven himself as an accomplished actor, most notably as Geordi LaForge on the “Star Trek” series and as Kunta Kinte in “Roots,” and as a director, producer and writer. His latest endeavor is the launch of a new cross-platform media company producing television programs, feature films and original web content. Under this new company, “Reading Rainbow” will return in 2012 as a multi-faceted new media venture.
Burton is pictured above wearing a Tufts hat and reading the book Enemy Pie to second graders from the Eliot-Pearson School. According to the Tufts Daily. Burton said his mother’s passion for reading and his family’s history as teachers, ministers and soldiers shaped his life in significant way.
“This is genuinely an honor. I believe there is such a thing as genetic encoding. All of the members of my family are teachers. I feel that I come to the work I do very honestly. Being a teacher bears and comes with certain responsibilities. You have to take a personal interest with growth and development,” said Burton.
Burton also said he believes combining reading and television is a way to create positive change in the world, according to the Daily.
“I’ve said for many years that I believe that television and the attendant web we have created around communications in this world is the most powerful tool for creating growth and change in society in the history of civilization,” he said.
– InsideMedford.com. Photos courtesy Tufts University.