TSU MLK DAY SCHEDULE
Initiated by Congress in 1994, the King Day of Service transforms the federal holiday into a national day of community service grounded in Dr. King’s teachings of nonviolence and social justice. The holiday is a day ON, where people of all ages and backgrounds improve lives, bridge social barriers, and move our nation closer to the “Beloved Community” that Dr. King envisioned.
MONDAY, JANUARY 15, 2018
8:30am – 10:00am
Youth Rally featuring: the Rep Your Voice Room to make picket signs for the march!
Jefferson Street Baptist Church
2708 Jefferson Street
Nashville, TN 37208
10:00am
Ceremonial March to TSU Gentry Complex
Beginning at the intersection of 28th & Jefferson Street
11:00am – 12:00pm
CONVOCATION
TSU Gentry Complex
3500 John A. Merritt Blvd
Nashville, TN 37209
Vanderbilt MLK Day Celebrations
11:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Nashville Freedom Ride
Leaving from Branscomb Circle
Nashville Freedom Rider Kwame Lillard will conduct a tour of significant sites in the civil rights movement in Nashville.
11:30-11:45 Students check in at Branscomb
12:00 p.m. Lunch at Swett’s Restaurant, 2725 Clifton Ave, Nashville, TN 37209
1:00-5:00 p.m. Tour by Kwame Lillard and Sandra Brown
This is an RSVP event (priority given to Vanderbilt students)
11:30 a.m.
Souls of the Dream: MLK Lunchtime Performances
with Melanated and Vanderbilt Spoken Word
Location: Sarratt Cinema
Box Lunches will be available outside of Sarratt Cinema for students, faculty and staff attending the Lunchtime Performances
Afternoon Teach-Ins • 1:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. and 2:45 – 3:45 p.m.
1:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.
Teach-In (A)
Activism and Sports
When former National Football League (NFL) quarterback Colin Kaepernick decided to protest racial inequality and police brutality during the pre-game playing of the National Anthem, he sparked an international conversation. He raised a series of questions, too. What is the historical relationship between activism and athletics? What role has the black athlete played in the black freedom struggle? How should we think about the relationship between sports and society? This session responds to all of these questions. In particular, by analyzing the perceptions and global politics of twentieth-century black athletes including Jackie Robinson and Arthur Ashe, it provides a foundation for better understanding current events including the ongoing protests by current and former NFL players.
Leader: Dr. Brandon Byrd
Location: Sarratt Cinema
Teach-In (B)
Self-Care is Community Care: Practices for Building Healing and Justice
Self-Care is Community Care: Practices for Building Healing and Justice In the age of social media, “wokeness” can feel like a relentless, impossible ideal one must “achieve” to feel worthwhile, let alone impactful. Our movement spaces are not immune from the structures and habits of white supremacy and oppression, but there are many folks who are giving vision to how our work, our movements, and our future might be radically changed if we centered healing justice as crucial. Together we’ll practice personal, communal, and embodied ways of centering healing as crucial to the work of racial justice and more.
Leaders: Lyndsey Godwin and Rev. Shantell Hinton
Location: Ingram Commons MPR
2:45 p.m. – 3:45 p.m.
Teach-In (C)
Freedom of Expression without Suppression of Speech
We live in an age in which “free speech” has consequences. Speech is not free from stimulating opposition and rancor; and it certainly isn’t free from engendering division and debate. Indeed, the stakes are higher than ever, particularly on college campuses, during this age of divisiveness and activism. One goal of this teach-in is to examine the concept of “free speech” in the marketplace of ideas. Secondly, the teach-in will stimulate dialogue on how we can each contribute constructively to a community of mutual respect and tolerance, even when encountering oppositional concepts and ideas.
Leaders: Dr. Frank Dobson and Carin Brown
Location: Sarratt Cinema
Teach-In (D)
Injustice in the “It” City
Nashville is often deemed as one of the “it” cities in the nation, as it is home to country music, Opryland, celebrities, an array of colleges and universities, and a renowned show. As a result, the city has garnered an influx of tourists and residents, especially in the past 15 years. However, behind the attractions and amenities are injustices that have helped Nashville to become a top city. Gentrification, the money bail system, the school-to-prison pipeline, and a lack of affordable housing are a few of the inequities that plague the “it” city. This teach-in will explore these and other systems of oppression in Nashville and the on the groundwork that is being done to eliminate these injustices.
Leader: Briana Perry
Location: BCC Auditorium
MLK Keynote Address
Professor Dr. Michael Eric Dyson
Langford Auditorium
Tickets are free and available through the Sarratt Cinema Box Office beginning December 1st. On January 15, remaining tickets will be available at the lobby of Langford Auditorium at 6:15 pm.
6:30 p.m.
Welcome and Introduction by Associate Dean of Students, Dr. Frank E. Dobson, Jr.
6:35 p.m.
Candlelight Vigil
Join us for an inspirational interfaith service that bears witness to the shining light that Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King was in our world and to the continuing light of his legacy among us. Vanderbilt University and Divinity School students will lead this service. Thanks to Assistant Dean Rev. Dr. Amy Steele for coordinating the planning of this service.
6:45 p.m.
MLK Middle and High School Essay/Poetry/Spoken Word Contest Winners
For complete essays and poems please visit our website at www.vanderbilt.edu/mlk.
7:00 p.m.
Welcome by Chancellor Nicholas Zeppos
Introductions by Karlin Compton, Black Student Association President and
Jacqueline Cox, Vanderbilt Student Government President
MLK Keynote: Dr. Michael Eric Dyson
7:50 p.m.
Q and A
8:05 p.m.
Dr. Dyson will sign copies of his new book “Tears That Will Not Stop”
Location: Lobby of Langford
