Durham, NC - Patrisse Cullors, co-founder of the #BlackLivesMatter movement, will speak Wednesday, Oct. 28, in Page Auditorium at Duke University.

The 7 p.m. event is free and open to the public, but tickets are required. Tickets will be available from the Page Auditorium box office beginning Oct. 14 for members of the Duke community and starting Oct. 21 for the general public.

Cullors is a Los Angeles-based artist and activist. She co-founded #BlackLivesMatter in 2013 together with Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi in response to the killing of Trayvon Martin, a Florida African-American teenager, and the acquittal of shooter George Zimmerman.

What began as a social media hashtag on Twitter quickly became a broader movement, inspiring protests in response to a series of deaths of African-Americans in police custody. In particular, the movement gained visibility following the fatal shooting of Michael Brown by a policeman in Ferguson, Missouri.

A former Fulbright Scholarship recipient, Cullors has also co-authored recent reports on the high rates of mental illness among black prison inmates.