After the much-praised success of last year's Martin Luther King Day celebration, the planners of this year's events hope to include a broader cross-section of the University community in the programming, which starts today.
"A lot of our theme this year was to incorporate as many different types of people as possible...," said Trinity senior Jeremy Huff, Duke Student Government vice president for community interaction. "Music, theater, film, poetry, science and technology, history.... It adds a lot to the week because it maybe caters to different types of people."
Although he did not have a final cost for the week's festivities, Huff-co-chair of student planning-noted that the larger organizing committee's overall budget was around $40,000.
Huff expects Sunday afternoon's keynote speaker, U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., to provide a strong link between the past and the future.
As chair of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee from 1963 to 1966, Lewis organized 1964's Mississippi Freedom Summer, a massive drive to increase voter registration and support community action programs.
"John Lewis is the perfect speaker because he's someone who had a lot to do with civil rights in this country... and he's also a congressman so he sees the past and the future," Huff said. "He's right in the middle of this continuum."
The week-long celebration begins tomorrow at noon with a candlelight vigil at the Chapel. Other plans for the week include a Saturday night presentation by performance poet Sekou Sundiata, who is a professor at New York's New School. The event is partially sponsored by the Duke University Union, which was criticized last year for not helping finance Anna Deveare Smith's performance.
A series of student-organized events will carry though the week. Monday afternoon's cultural extravaganza and luncheon will include performances and presentations by Dance Black, Diya Dancers, United in Praise and several other groups.
"Our goal is to start a dialogue by representing different groups on campus," said Trinity senior Rudy Spaulding, the extravaganza's organizer and co-director of Mi Gente. "We hope observers would get an idea of how diverse our campus is."
Huff added that at the extravaganza, organizers will hand out 2,000 copies of a photo mosaic poster designed to commemorate this year's celebration.
Activities later in the week include a panel discussion called "What is Race?" and a presentation by Spencie Love, the assistant director of the Southern Oral History Program.
"We tried to spread out the week with lots of different things...," he said. "We hope by the end of the week... we have a sense of tradition of Martin Luther King Jr. Day at Duke."
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