In Brief: January 11

BGSU staff, students to explore MLK legacy through performance

BGSU students, staff and alumni will honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during a special performance on Thursday (Jan. 14), joined by the Bowling Green High School Madrigals choir and children of staff members.

“The Fulfillment of the Dream: Spoken Word, Songs, and Theatre” will explore the life and legacy of the civil rights leader. The program begins at 730 p.m. in the Bowen-Thompson Student Union Theater and is free and open to the public.

Organized by the Office of Multicultural Affairs (OMA), the performance is sponsored by 10 BGSU student organizations and includes participants from each, said director Sheila Brown, OMA associate director.

The original poems were written by the student performers, and senior Jay Wells will sing his original song “Keep Dreamin’.” The evening also includes the anthem “Lift Every Voice and Sing” and “I Know Where I’ve Been.” “It will be powerful,” Brown promised.

Brown will also act with BGSU alumnus and former student leadership program director Bryan Cavins in a skit she wrote about the courage demonstrated and the risks taken by an interracial couple in 1960 and the four young black men who staged a sit-in at a Greensboro, N.C., Woolworth’s lunch counter and those who supported them.

“The poems, readings, dance and short theater pieces are all related to the civil rights movement and Martin Luther King’s legacy, and their relevance in todays’ society,”” Brown said. “Short video clips will provide a historical overview to show today’s students what life looked like for black people in the 1950s and ’60’s. Our hope is that students gain a better understanding of how the civil rights achievements of Rosa Parks, the Little Rock Nine, the Freedom Riders and the Greensboro Four, sparked greater resolve on the part of black citizens and that many of these movements were led by college age students, both black and white.”

City to hold tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Bowling Green Mayor Richard Edwards invites all BGSU faculty and staff to attend the 27th annual Tribute to Martin Luther King Jr. on Friday (Jan. 15).

Hosted by the Bowling Green Human Relations Commission and the Office of the Mayor, the event will begin at 1:30 p.m. in the Wood County District Public Library, 251 N. Main St.

Diana Patton of the Toledo Fair Housing Center will be the featured speaker. Musical entertainment will be presented by the Bowling Green High School Madrigals.