Editor’s Note: A complete calendar of events related to commemoration of Martin Luther King’s birthday appears on pages 8–9.
Two concerts and several community sing programs by the Urban Bush Women are among the events scheduled for the University’s commemoration of Martin Luther King’s birthday this week and next.
The Urban Bush Women, established in 1984, “explores the struggle, growth, transformation and survival of the human spirit through movement, live music, a capella vocalization, and the drama and wit of the spoken word,” according to the University Musical Society which is sponsoring their appearances. “Their profound interpretations enhance cultural awareness and reinforce the cultural importance of the African diaspora.
Among the works to be performed at the concerts are “I Don’t Know, But I’ve Been Told, If You Keep on Dancin’ You’ll Never Grow Old,” a tribute to the drill teams, drum majorettes and double-dutch groups that keep the spirit of dance alive in public schools, and “Lifedance IV… Womb Wars,” part of a series of works that represent a personal odyssey through images from various spiritual traditions. “Womb Wars” is about abortion and women’s choice.
The group’s concerts will be held at 8 p.m. Saturday (Jan. 16) and 3 p.m. Sunday (Jan. 17) at the Power Center for the Performing Arts. Community sings will be held at 7 p.m. Friday (Jan. 15) in the Hussey Room, Michigan League, and 3 p.m. Jan. 18 in the Vandenburg Room, Michigan League. For concert ticket information, call 764-2538.
As in past years, classes will be suspended Jan. 18 to provide students the opportunity to attend the various events, and supervisors are encouraged to provide release time for staff members who wish to participate in an event of interest to them.
Under a theme of “From Indifference and Inequality to Justice and Reconciliation,” faculty, staff, students and community members will be able to choose from several symposium events sponsored by the Office of the Vice Provost for Minority Affairs, as well as more than 55 lectures, seminars, workshops and discussion groups sponsored by U-M units.
The annual Unity March, sponsored by the Black Student Union, will begin at noon Jan. 18 at the intersection of East and South University. The march will conclude with speeches on the Diag.
Opening the symposium at 7 p.m. Sunday (Jan. 17) in Hill Auditorium will be Danny Glover and Felix Justice, who will read from the works of Langston Hughes and Martin Luther King Jr.
Author Bebe Moore Campbell will give the opening address at 11 a.m. Jan. 18 at the Power Center. An address by Julianne Malveaux at 7:30 p.m. in the Power Center will close the symposium. Dreamkeeper awards also will be presented at this ceremony.
Campbell is the author of Sweet Summer: Growing Up With and Without My Dad and Your Blues Ain’t Mine, as well as a contributing writer to Essence magazine.
Malveaux is an economist and syndicated columnist with the San Francisco Sun Reporter and also a contributing writer to Essence magazine.
at 7:30 p.m.
Campbell’s and Malveaux’s presentations will be made available to television stations nationwide via a satellite uplink. Locally, Barden Cable (Ch. 69) and Columbia Cable (Ch. 10) will broadcast the programs.
Eleven programs will be offered by the Symposium Planning Committee on Jan. 18 before and after the opening address. Among the topics:
—Total Quality Management and Diversity.
—Conflict Resolution in South Africa.
—Building and Improving African-Centered Organizations and Institutions.
—Nationalist Organizing and the Role of Students in Struggle.
In addition, the Program on Intergroup Relations and Conflict will coordinate two sets of dialog groups, one focusing on a dialog among persons of color and the other on dialog among persons of color and white persons.
Among the unit-sponsored programs:
—Performance: “for coloured girls who have considered suicide and the rainbow is enuf,” Sigma Gamma Rho and a number of other units.
—Innovative Techniques in Workshops and Seminars, 21st Century Program.
—Unity Through Diversity, Shirley Chisholm, School of Business Administration.
—African American Folktales, Center for Afroamerican and African Studies and William L. Clements Library.
—Emerging Media Issues, Department of Communications.
—Perspectives on Being a Minority Speaker of the Language of the Majority, English Language and Linguistics Program.
—Why Punish Demeaning Expression? Department of Philosophy.
—Equality and Justice: Women’s Unfinished Health Care Agenda, Faye Wattleton, School of Nursing.
—Making a Difference: Libraries as Society’s Equalizers, Gloria Naylor, University Library.
