VCU news

By Tom Gresham

Christina Hairston, a senior communication arts major at Virginia Commonwealth University, has attended VCU’s MLK Week in January each of the past three years. The schedule of events and activities honoring Martin Luther King Jr. has grown larger and more compelling each time. Last year, Hairston decided she needed to be more than a participant — she wanted to help plan it.

“It’s such a great program,” she said. “I really wanted to be a part of it.”

Hairston is one of a host of students who have been heavily involved in the creation of the 2017 MLK Week, which will run Jan. 16-22. Students such as Hairston serve on a universitywide committee alongside staff and faculty from various VCU units to develop a celebration that will emphasize community and service while providing ample time and opportunity to reflect on King’s legacy today.

MLK Week is so important to the university because of what MLK stood for.

“MLK Week is so important to the university because of what MLK stood for,” Hairston said. “The things that were important to him really encompass what we’re here to do as students and what faculty and staff strive to provide for us. He stands for what VCU wants to be about. It’s just a great opportunity to bring people together.”

Beverly Walker, program manager for career development in the HR Redesign Project Office, is the co-founder and co-chair of MLK Week at VCU, which is in its fourth year. She said each year the program and the number of organizers expand as attendees become inspired to volunteer and help with the organization and planning of the week.

“Our students are involved in everything this year,” Walker said. “They’ve taken the lead in so many important ways.”

Walker said MLK Week emphasizes the importance of “walking the walk” on issues of service and inclusion.

“One of Dr. King’s beliefs is that doing the right thing is hard work,” Walker said. “You have to get involved to make a change. That’s very much aligned with our mission here at VCU.”

The 2017 MLK Week features speakers, discussions, films, ceremonies, celebrations, service opportunities and other activities. MLK Week welcomes participation from faculty, staff, students, alumni and members of the Richmond community. Among this year’s highlights will be keynote speaker Marc Lamont Hill, Ph.D., an author, media personality and professor at Morehouse College, on Jan. 18. Hill will speak about race, politics and social justice. Past speakers, such as Bree Newsome, an activist who scaled a flag pole outside the South Carolina State House to take down a Confederate Flag, and David Banner, a musician, actor and civic activist, have drawn large crowds and sparked engrossing conversations, Walker said.

Lateesha Watkins, one of the student organizers for MLK Week, said she is excited to hear Hill, who she finds humorous, intelligent and direct.

“He doesn’t sugarcoat anything,” she said.

MLK Week opens with a candlelight vigil on Jan. 16 commemorating King that is led by members of the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, where King was a brother. Hairston attended last year’s vigil and described it as a powerful experience.

MLK Legacy Night on Jan. 17 will guide attendees to consider King’s life and influence through novelties and light-humored activities, such as dreamcatchers, coffee mugs, T-shirts, a “post your secret” board and a photo station. Local restaurant Mama J’s will cater. Watkins, who is a member of the Activities Programming Board at VCU, said the event uses notable facts and other trivia from King’s life to help him come alive as a person and historical figure.

“We took a fun fact approach to it,” Watkins said. “People are going to learn things that will really stick with them.”

Hairston, who is part of the Black Art Student Empowerment organization, helped plan the MLK Café and Design event on Jan. 19 that will take an artistic approach to considering King. The event will include spoken word, painting, entertainment and food.

Community service will be a central component of the week. Organizers are overseeing both a drive to collect pencils for Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School and a collection drive for new and lightly used books for the school. (Target age for the books is for 10- to 15-year-old readers.) For collection drive locations, visit mlkday.vcu.edu/community-service. In addition, volunteers can sign up to work with students at the middle school on Jan. 20. Later that afternoon, students from the school will visit campus for a Get Youth Engaged social. Faculty and staff are invited, and registration for this event is not required. Faculty and staff can use community service leave to participate.

A new service event this year that promises to be popular is the MLK Service Saturday, on Jan. 21. Participants will meet at the Student Commons in the morning and then disperse to area nonprofits to complete service projects. In the afternoon, participants will regroup for a discussion of their work over lunch. (Registration is required.)

“This year is very much about how do we give back and particularly how do we give back in a way that both honors Martin Luther King Jr. and fits the university’s mission,” Walker said.

MLK Week concludes on Jan. 22 with a community dinner at 4 p.m. in the Commonwealth Ballroom of the Student Commons (RSVP required — mlkday.vcu.edu/community-dinner). The dinner, a favorite of past attendees, will feature performances by the Richmond Boys Choir and a speech from Latonya Waller, a VCU alumna and the principal of T.C. Boushall Middle School. Winners of an essay contest for MLK Middle School students will read excerpts of their winning pieces.

For a complete schedule of MLK Week events, visit mlkday.vcu.edu/event-schedule.

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