Black activism celebration "Lift Every Voice" drew 70 people to Dartmouth Hall and capped off Black History Month with a collection of speeches, songs, poetry and prose celebrating the achievements of black civil rights activists. The event also culminated Black Solidarity Day, which encouraged members of the College community to wear black and maintain a day-long silence to recognize and protest social injustices.
Sexual Abuse Awareness Program coordinator Leah Prescott, one of 18 speakers at the event, asked audience members in a thundering voice where they would be if civil rights activists like Martin Luther King, Jr., James Baldwin and Rosa Parks were silent.
"Where is your resistance? Where is your refusal?" Prescott said, imploring her audience to have the courage to speak out. Prescott ended her recital of the poem she wrote in tears and drew a standing ovation.
Bridgette Hylton '06 helped organize the event with two other interns at the Office of Black Student Advising.
"We want to take the chance to highlight great orators in black history as well as to celebrate and inspire people," Hylton said.
Highlights of the program included student readings of famous prose and poetry as well as song performances.
Ugochi Ukegbu '09 read a letter by writer James Baldwin to his nephew at the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation.
"It will be hard, James, but you come from sturdy, peasant stock, men who picked cotton and dammed rivers and built railroads, and in the teeth of the most terrifying odds, achieved an unassailable and monumental dignity," Ukegbu read.
Performers also recited the writings of black nationalist Malcolm X, anti-apartheid activist and former South African President Nelson Mandela and poet Langston Hughes, as well as the songs "Lift Every Voice and Sing" and "We Shall Overcome."
The event was attended by community members and students who turned up to support their friends and learn more about black history.
"I go to quite a few events like this," Jesse Tichenor '06 said. "I'm aware there's a lot of gaps in the history I've learnt and appreciate the chance to have people speak out on what's important to them."
Simon Trabelsi '08 performed a poem he dedicated to Meleia Willis-Starbuck '07, who was killed in Berkeley, Calif., this summer. To him, Willis-Starbuck embodied the spirit of activism, "whether it was campus-wide, interpersonal, or in society at large."
"I have pledged to complete her mission and slave for social justice, but Meleia didn't just expect this of me; she expected, and still expects it of everyone," Trabelsi said.
"When it comes to causing change, everyone needs to do their share, even if it's on a small level."
