Compton : Young Summer-School Organizer to Be Honored

Penny Wilkerson, the 14-year-old who became an overnight media celebrity after she was discovered last year running a summer school for children in her Compton housing project, will be honored along with her grandmother, Ora Gray, at a luncheon and poetry reading Saturday.

The 1 p.m. event in the Shanghai Garden at the Airport Park Hotel in Inglewood is being sponsored by the congregation at Emmanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Compton. Proceeds will go into a scholarship fund for Wilkerson.

“Blackwomansong” is the title of the program. Regina Chaney, poet and lecturer, will read her poetry. Also reading their poetry will be a group of students from Charles A. Lindbergh Junior High School in Long Beach. Pianist A.R. Clark will present blues renditions.

Tickets are $25.