Patrice Gaines, an African-American woman who survived batterings, sexual abuse and a prison sentence for heroin possession to become a prize-winning Washington Post reporter and author, will share her story and offer suggestions for implementing change in one's life Monday, Nov. 3, at 7:30 p.m. in Cornell University's Anabel Taylor Hall Auditorium.

Gaines' presentation, "It Happens Here: Oppression, Drugs and Self-Discovery," is free and open to the public. Two Cornell peer-education student groups, ALERT and PEHR, will give brief performances on overcoming substance abuse and oppression before the reporter speaks. A reception and book-signing in the Founders Room of Anabel Taylor Hall will follow the talk.

The event is made possible by grants awarded to Cornell Drug Risk Awareness by the Cornell Dean of Students Office and CIGNA Corp., and is co-sponsored by the Africana Studies and Research Center, Cornell United Religious Work, University Health Services, Community Development and Campus Life, and Students Making Alcohol Substitutes Happen (SMASH).

Before becoming a successful writer, Gaines endured emotional abuse, rapes, beatings, and drug abuse, a jail sentence, a life she described in the 1995 autobiography Laughing in the Dark: From Colored Girl to Woman of Color, a Journey from Prison to Power. The winner of the National Association of Black Journalists' Award for Commentary and nominee for the Pulitzer Prize in journalism, Gaines now delivers her message of survival and triumph to audiences in prisons as well as universities. Her 1997 book is titled Moments of Grace: Meeting the Challenge to Change.

Recalling her past, Gaines wrote: "As a reporter years later, I would interview men and women who had contracted AIDS from sharing dirty needles, and I saw no difference between me and them except time: I shot heroin before AIDS."