Penn State Commemorates Martin Luther King Jr. Day Through Week Of Events Aimed At Overcoming Barriers
January 5, 2001
University Park, Pa. — It’s been more than three decades since Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. first cast the bright rays of civility and hope upon a nation shrouded by the darkness of racism and hate.

Penn State will again harvest the light wrought by King’s dreams of civil harmony and try to make it a year-round model for living and interacting with others through its annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day commemoration in January.

The University Park observance will have a different focus than in previous years. Organizers have chosen to use more resources to support activities and programs from participating student and administrative units on campus rather than centering the program around a keynote speaker.

The result at this stage of preparation is a full week of celebrations, artistic productions, and volunteer activities for faculty, staff, and students. The slate of events is united under the common theme "Overcoming the Barriers, Fulfilling the Promise."

"This year we found ourselves in the rare situation of having Dr. King's birthday fall on the national holiday," said Thomas G. Poole, associate vice provost for educational equity and chair of the planning committee. "That means that Monday, Jan. 15 is going to be a day full of remembrances. We decided that we would help to coordinate and publicize events rather than compete with the other celebrations.

"It’s our hope that we’ll have an outstanding array of events and programs that celebrate the legacy of Dr. King and offer outlets for the community to contribute to making his dreams and ideals of civility and equality a reality — without concentrating solely on one day," he added. "Ideally, we hope the commemoration demonstrates the way people can and should live and work together — both as college students and as members of a civilized society."

Student groups have answered this call, contributing to a diverse schedule of events highlighted by the annual Day of Service on Monday, Jan. 15. The Day of Service, which has been deemed a "day on, not a day off," provides volunteer opportunities for students, faculty, staff, and community members. Service project categories include multiculturalism, elderly, children and youth, health, homeless and poor, environmentalism, literacy, and disability.

Highlighting the holiday will be the annual community commemorative bell ringing at 11:30 a.m. in the HUB-Robeson Center’s Heritage Hall. The day will culminate in an evening celebration for student volunteers in Rec Hall from 6:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. Henry Giroux, Waterbury Chair Professsor in Penn State’s College of Education and a well-known author and speaker on topics such as youth, media, racism, and popular culture, will keynote the celebration.

"We want people to become aware of the values of the day — the ethics that motivated Dr. King and serve as an inspiration to us today," said Tony Huang, director of the Undergraduate Student Government’s 2001 Martin Luther King Jr. Day initiative.

Bookending the week-long celebration will be a theatrical production of "The Meeting," which details a fictitious meeting between Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X at the Victoria Hotel in New York the night prior to Malcolm’s assassination. Directed by Charles Dumas, associate professor of theatre arts, and featuring theatre graduate students Herb Newsome and Jarvis George, the thought-provoking play portrays the adversarial discussion of ideas between King and Malcolm, resulting in a new-found respect between the two men.

Performances of "The Meeting" will be Friday and Saturday, Jan. 12 and 13, and Jan. 19 and 20, at 7 p.m. in Heritage Hall. A matinee showing will be offered on Sunday, Jan. 21, at 2 p.m.

In addition, another project by Dumas will premiere in conjunction with the King celebration. Approximately 100 students and professional actors collaborated on "Surfacing," a film production that conveys the atmosphere of student activism in the 1970s at a fictitious Pennsylvania State College. The film flashes forward 20 years, where those students reflect on activism and try to communicate its importance with today’s comparatively apathetic students.

"Surfacing" will be screened on Sunday, Jan. 14, at 7:30 p.m. in Heritage Hall.

The planning committee has selected a logo that ties in the theme of the commemoration. Designed by visual art student Li Lam, the image appears on posters, flyers, and buttons that have been distributed across campus and around the community.

For more information on the Martin Luther King Jr. commemoration, visit http://www.equity.psu.edu/mlk.

Contact: Tysen Kendig, Department of Public Information, (814) 865-7517 or tysen@psu.edu.