The public is invited to free events and workshops this week as Highline College hosts its 22nd annual Martin Luther King Jr. Week celebration.
The theme of this year’s celebration is Fear, Falsehood and Freedom: Where Do We Go From Here?
The week’s events will examine community building, faith in social activism, the role art plays in social justice and more. Lectures will include thought leaders such as Anida Yoeu Ali, artist, writer and global agitator; Jesse Hagopian, author, history teacher and Black Student Union co-advisor at Garfield High School; and Dr. Maxine Mimms, co-founder of the Tacoma Program of The Evergreen State College.
Highline’s Martin Luther King Jr. Week is sponsored by the college’s Office of Multicultural Affairs, Center for Leadership and Service, Learning and Teaching Center, LGBTQIA Task Force, Between the Lines Book Club, Whites on White committee and the AANAPISI program.
All events are on Highline College’s main campus in Des Moines, South 240th Street and Pacific Highway South (Highway 99).
For more information, contact Multicultural Affairs: email mca@highline.edu, call (206) 592-3296 or visit multiculturalaffairs.highline.edu/mlkweek.php.
Schedule:
Tuesday, Jan. 17
Event: Keynote Address by Dr. Maxine Mimms: “Fear, Falsehood and Freedom: Where Do We Go From Here?”
Time: 10–11:30 a.m.
Location: Building 7
Description: Dr. Maxine Mimms will provide a dialogue about where we are as a country and how we can move forward as new leaders in our communities.
Event: Keynote Reception for Dr. Maxine Mimms
Time: Noon–1 p.m.
Location: Building 8 (Mt. Constance Room)
Description: Join the planning committee as they celebrate the kickoff of Martin Luther King Jr. Week and honor Dr. Maxine Mimms.
Event: LGBTQIA Safe Zones
Time: 1–3 p.m.
Location: Building 2
Description: Safe Zones is a program identifying individuals in the Highline community who are safe and supportive allies of LGTBQIA students, faculty and staff. Join us and learn more about the queer community and build skills to use on campus and in the community.
Wednesday, Jan. 18
Event: Lecture by Luis Ortega: “You Are My Other Me: A Radical Empathy Story”
Time: 10–11:30 a.m.
Location: Building 7
Description: Luis Ortega shares his journey as undocumented immigrant with poems, humor and resilience in an effort to illustrate what Dr. King described in his letter from Birmingham as the “inescapable network of mutuality” that exists between human beings.
Event: Lecture by Dr. Derrick Brooms: “Mothering the Movement: Women of the Black Freedom Movement, 1930–1980”
Time: 1:30–3 p.m.
Location: Building 7
Description: Facilitated by Dr. Derrick Brooms, this presentation highlights black women’s integral roles in the black freedom movement and explores how they were both silenced and sidelined while sustaining the movement.
Thursday, Jan. 19
Event: Lecture and performance by Anida Yoeu Ali: “Generation Return: The Art and Justice of Anida Yoeu Ali”
Time: 10–11:30 a.m.
Location: Building 7
Description: Artist, writer and global agitator Anida Yoeu Ali will present and discuss her works and ideas about contemporary justice and its residual effects on the Cambodian-American experience.
Event: Panel presentation: “Empty Applause: A Conversation on Maintaining Your Faith in Social Justice Activism”
Time: 1:30–3 p.m.
Location: Building 7
Description: Join our panelists Rev. Lavern Hall, Rev. Harriet Walden, Imam Hussam Rabi and Natasha Burrowes in a conversation about faith, healing and activism.
Friday, Jan. 20
Event: Lecture by Jesse Hagopian: “Black Education Matters: Disrupting Fear and Falsehood and Educating for Freedom”
Time: 9–10:30 a.m.
Location: Building 7
Description: Join Jesse Hagopian, author, history teacher and Black Student Union co-advisor at Garfield High School, as he draw lessons from Martin Luther King Jr. and the great social movements of the 1960s and 70s with the aim of transforming the education system and the broader society to resist fear and falsehood and struggle for freedom.
Event: Workshop facilitated by Natasha Burrowes: First Friday Leadership Institute
Time: 2–4 p.m.
Location: Building 8 (Mt. Constance Room)
Description: In this workshop facilitated by Natasha Burrowes, we will explore the wisdom of Dr. King’s book “Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?”
Talk to us
Please share your story tips by emailing editor@kentreporter.com.
To share your opinion for publication, submit a letter through our website https://www.kentreporter.com/submit-letter/. Include your name, address and daytime phone number. (We’ll only publish your name and hometown.) Please keep letters to 300 words or less.
