Speakers at the "Black Route West" conference, which is taking place at the University of California, Davis, Sept. 28-30, will be available for news media interviews at noon on Friday, Sept. 29. The media availability will be held in the University Club on Old Davis Road. The conference will examine the contributions people of African descent have made to the West and was developed by a group of scholars nationwide. It is the initial event in a planned series on the history and contemporary life of people of African descent in the Western United States. Among topics to be discussed are "Willie Brown as a Metaphor for the Black West at the End of the 20th Century," and "Black Pioneers in the Westward Movement and Black Cowboys," black artists and black women in the West, and California gold and the origins of Sacramento's black communities. Conference sponsors include the UC Davis African American and African Studies Program, UC Irvine Humanities Research Institute, UC African and African American Studies Consortium and the California State Department of Parks and Recreation. To reach the University Club, take Interstate 80 to the UC Davis exit. Take Old Davis Road east to the University Club. Reporters should mark vehicles by placing business cards on the dashboards.