CSC celebrates MLK Day
There was a special open mic event Sunday night in the Student Center Ballroom in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Snacks and beverages were offered for everyone. The event was organized by Gavan Archibald, RD of Kent Hall. Students were encouraged to show off their talent and creativity, whether in song or allowing the audience to vibe with them through poetry. They did not disappoint, and the night was a success. Many students showed up, and a good number of them showcased their talents.
MLK day started early with a crowded and stuffy Student Center Ballroom for four faculty and student panel presentations. The first panel presentation was by David Nesheim, social and communication arts assistant professor. He showed clips from “Slavery By Another Name,” a movie from the book by Douglass Blackman, while also adding comments and engaging the audience to express their opinions or thoughts about the video. The video focused on slavery and the different ways it was still occurring in other terms after President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation.
Nesheim showed the movie in some of his classes and used portions of it to make connections as to how discrimination is still around although many believe it died with the Emancipation Proclamation.
A second panel consisting of Social and Communication Arts Associate Professor and Department Chair Robert Knight, Social and Communication Arts Assistant Professor Shaunda French, and English and Humanities Professor and Department Chair Matthew Evertson, was focused on civic engagement.
French engaged the audience by asking how many terms and citations people thought showed on a web search when looking up the term “civic engagement.” Guesses from 20 to a few million were suggested, but the answer was 383,000. The three faculty members continued by asking what audience members considered to be civic engagement and what the difference, if any, is between that and community service.
A quote from King’s “Letter From a Birmingham Jail” was used to pursue the topic of engaging in civic activities. “…We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality…whatever effects one directly, effects all indirectly…” Each professor asked a student of theirs to speak on how they engaged in civic activities and share their experiences with the audience.
The third panel focused on King’s “Letter From a Birmingham Jail” with students from English and Humanities Professor Katherine Bahr’s Composition II class presenting. Each student or pair focused on a section of the letter and explained how it is still relevant.
After each shared their portion of the letter, different faculty and staff from the audience expressed what they remembered from the Civil Rights Movement or related events.
The last panel brought Nesheim back along side Thomas Smith, social and communication arts associate professor, to discuss the book, “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Color blindness” by Michelle Alexander. Smith shared Alexander’s thoughts. Both Smith and Nesheim went back and forth providing the audience with a compelling panel and raised questions on different topics.
Following the panels at 1:30 p.m., members from Job Corp, Chadron State College students, faculty and staff members joined together at the corner of Main and Third streets to begin a march.
During the march those involved listened to King’s “Drum Major Instinct” speech, which King delivered Feb. 4, 1968, at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. The march went to the Student Center where those who joined could enjoy refreshments.