Arts & Entertainment

Bill Cosby to Visit Tufts, Collect Award

Sit-com legend expected to visit on Feb. 25.

Bill Cosby will visit Tufts later this month to receive an award for excellence in children's media, according to an announcement from the university.

Cosby, along with educator and social commentator Alvin F. Poussaint from Harvard University, will be honored at the fifth annual Eliot-Pearson Awards for Excellence in Children's Media on Feb. 25 at 10 a.m. at at Tufts, according to the announcement.

The awards are given every two years to recognize innovation, diversity, nonviolence and developmentally appropriate media for children, according to the release from university spokeswoman Katie Cinnamond.

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Cosby was picked for his humor and compassion, Julie Dobrow, communications and media studies director, said in a statement.

"Our selection committee conducts a rigorous search to recognize those who work to create media that are free of gender, racial and ethnic stereotypes and make a real difference in the lives of children," Dobrow said in the statement. "Bill Cosby was a natural choice for this award based on his ability to educate audiences through humor and compassion, as was Alvin Poussaint for his understanding of children's developmental differences."

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The event is free and open to the public and will be taking place in the Distler Performance Hall at the Granoff Music Center on Tufts University's Medford-Somerville campus.

Previous recipients of the Eliot-Pearson Awards for Excellence include Chris Gifford, Valerie Walsh and Cathy Galeota, producers for the American animated television series "Dora the Explorer"; Linda Ellerbee and Mark Lyons, executive producers of educational children's and teenagers' television show “Nick News for Kids”; Peggy Charren, founder of activist group Action for Children's Television; and Carol Greenwald, executive producer of the educational television series "Arthur," according to a Tufts media release.


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