Prestigious Literary Prize Now Affiliated With an Admitted Perv

He designed the medal affiliated with a prestigious literary award — and now he’s just pleaded guilty to performing “unspeakable acts in a bathroom stall.” Spelman College art professor Lev T. Mills — an artist who designed the Coretta Scott King Award medal and whose works have been exhibited at museums nationwide — was arrested earlier this month on a public indecency charge, according to Atlanta’s Channel 2. An undercover police officer saw Mills in a men’s-room stall at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. “Mills was facing away from the toilet in the stall ‘and was masturbating while watching other patrons in the restroom,’ explained B.C. Williams with the Atlanta Police Department. Officers say the professor then went to a toilet and began staring at the private parts of a man who was relieving himself.” Then Mills asked the man if he wanted some company, Channel 2 continues. Pleading guilty, the professor paid $303 in fines in lieu of a ten-day jail sentence. “I do not want to be humiliated anymore than what I’ve already been, so I would prefer to try to put this behind me as soon as possible,” he said, according to Channel 2.

The Coretta Scott King Award is presented annually by the Coretta Scott King Task Force of the American Library Association’s Ethnic Multicultural Information Exchange Round Table. Recent winners include Nikki Grimes for Dark Sons, Marilyn Nelson for A Wreath for Emmett Till and Toni Morrison for Remember: The Journey to School Integration .

On his Spelman faculty page, Mills describes his artwork thusly: “My work continues to evolve around the presence of contemporary forms which encompass traditional means of expressions and technology. Presently, I classify myself as a Constructionist. I create by building up ideas, tearing them down and rebuilding again until the subject matter, design and color have been integrated into a unified visual statement.... My symbolism is not to confuse, teach, reach or analyze, but to stimulate the observer's imagination to draw a conclusion. To be more explicit, I am an artist who creates for himself hoping to touch someone. I have no preconceived notions to which I am obligated to conform. I demand to be totally free to explore and use whatever vehicle will stimulate my imagination and my capacity to create.”

He doesn’t want to “reach” his viewers? Yet he wants to “touch” them? Confusing.

“Mills didn’t have a plane ticket and told police he came to the airport to mail a letter,” Channel 2 concludes.