As Martin Luther King Jr. Day approaches, students are excited over the prospect of a day off from classes on Monday. However, the Dickey Center along with other campus organizations has coordinated a wide variety of activities for Dartmouth College's Annual Celebration of 1960s civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.
This year's celebration, entitled "Against the Tide: Envisioning Peace and Justice in Times of Hatred" officially began last Sunday, and will conclude on Tuesday, Jan. 28, with a community dinner.
On Monday, Jan. 20, Morris Dees, co-founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center, will deliver the keynote address at 7 p.m. in Spaulding Auditorium.
Dees, who has authored several books including "Season for Justice" and "Gathering Storm: America's Militia Threat," also served as Chief Trial Counsel for the Center, which has won legal victories against white supremacist organizations and tracked hate groups.
Musicians Jon Jang and James Newton will present a lecture entitled "Paul Robeson: His Legacy As a Multicultural Artist" on Wednesday, January 22, at the Faculty Lounge in the Hop.
On Jan. 23, there will be a discussion with Paul Robeson Jr. entitled "Civil Rights, Free Speech, and the Price of Dissent," a reflection on his father's life and his impact on civil rights in America.
The following day, at the Center for Women and Gender, Ellen Bettmann, Director of Training and Resources for the Anti-Defamation League, will discuss her book, "Hate Hurts: How Children Learn and Unlearn Prejudice."
From 9 a.m. to 3 a.m. on Monday, Jan. 20, 105 Dartmouth Hall will host a continuous looping multimedia presentation of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Towards Freedom" speech, which King delivered on the Dartmouth campus in 1962.
On Wednesday, Jan. 22, Spaulding Auditorium will be showing "Frida" starring Salma Hayek. The film chronicles the life of the female Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. The following Friday, Jan. 24, Spaulding Auditorium will show "Bowling for Columbine," a documentary by filmmaker Michael Moore which explores the nature of America's gun culture.
Another film, "Pharaoh's Streets," an award-winning documentary about homelessness in Los Angeles by Jethro Rothe-Kushel '03, will play Saturday, Jan. 25, in 1 Rockefeller Center.
Sunday evening, an annual candlelight vigil will be held in honor of King and others who have worked for the cause of equality in America. Vigil participants will meet at Cutter/Shabazz Hall at 5 p.m. to march to the Hopkins Center.
The celebration concludes on Tuesday, Jan. 28, with a community dinner with Randall Kennedy, a Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and author of "Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word." The dinner will be held at the Roth Center for Jewish Life, at 6 p.m.
The celebration will also showcase several ongoing events. Among these are a student art exhibition in the "Area" art gallery at the Hop, a recently-acquired portrait of Martin Luther King Jr. in the Hood Museum of Art and a photography exhibit by internationally acclaimed contemporary photographer Carrie Mae Weems, also shown at the Hood Museum.
