'Voice of a New Generation: Spirit of America's Youth'
is theme of this year's program at the School of Medicine

The Reverend Frederick J. Streets, Yale chaplain and senior pastor of the Church of Christ in Yale, will join with three inspirational students from New Haven and Yale to celebrate and honor the contributions of young people on Monday, Jan. 18, at the School of Medicine's program observing Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

"Voices of a New Generation: The Spirit of America's Youth" is the theme of the program, which will be held 1-3 p.m. in Sterling Hall of Medicine's Mary S. Harkness Auditorium, 333 Cedar St. The program is free and open to the public. A reception will follow at 3 p.m. in the Beaumont Room.

"There has long been a need to give voice to the struggles and perspectives experienced by youth in our country today, especially in the context of how we as a community can address and affirm their aspirations as we come to the end of this millennium," says Liza D. Cariaga-Lo, director for multicultural affairs at the medical school. "This year, we especially wanted the Yale-New Haven community to come together to listen, be inspired and be informed by the moving testimonies of young people who have been an integral part of our community."

In his presentation, Streets will help attendees reflect on the ways they can help young people understand the impact and relevance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s work in their everyday lives. "At a time when we seem to be continually bombarded by the pain of violence, hopelessness and despair visited upon our youth, it is all the more important that we come together in celebration and remembrance of the goodness, hopefulness and resiliency that still abides," he says.

The students who will speak at the program are:

* Charles Warner, a senior at Hill Career High School, who has become well-known to both teachers and students as a leader and inspirational speaker. He is a member of the National Honor Society and has been honored as a keynote speaker at the Connecticut statewide America's Promise Conference. A New Haven native, he would like to combine his unique talents in music and the sciences to contribute to the general well-being of young people growing up in this city.

* Yale College senior Erin Armstead, who hails from Somerset, N.J., and attended Rutgers Preparatory School, where she received numerous honors. At Yale, she has been a member of the a capella singing group Shades and was their musical director during the 1996-97 season. A dancer as well as a singer, Armstead also aspires to be a physician in order "to establish programs to help provide opportunities for people to become more involved in their health care".

* Richard Lyn-Cook, a 1992 graduate of Yale College and a member of the graduating class at the medical school, who was born in Jamaica and grew up in Queens, N.Y. As an undergraduate, he majored in African-American studies and was heavily involved in community service work in New Haven. He was active in the Black Student Alliance and was the director of educational activities for Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. After graduation from Yale College, Lyn-Cook worked for the Children's Defense Fund, helping to coordinate youth summer training programs. At the School of Medicine, he has been active in the Student National Medical Association and was elected co-president of his class during his third year. He received the Arthur Ashe Program in AIDS Care Fellowship and the Bristol-Myers Squibb Academic Research Fellowship. After graduation, he intends to pursue a combined internal medicine/pediatrics training program and hopes to utilize his skills as a physician to help care for the Caribbean community in New York City, as well as to engage in clinical research with the Centers for Disease Control.

Joining Yale faculty and staff at the Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration will be young people from New Haven area schools, teachers, community and church leaders. This community event will feature the a cappella singing group Shades and the Hill Career High School Gospel Choir.

Peabody Museum will once again host a family celebration

The Peabody Museum of Natural History is once again sponsoring a family celebration in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The program, which is also sponsored by the Dixwell Q House and the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection, will be held Sunday and Monday, Jan. 17 and 18.

Titled "Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Legacy of Environmental Justice: Local and Global Perspectives," the program will take place noon-5 p.m. on Sunday and 10 a.m.-5 p.m. on Monday at the Peabody Museum, 170 Whitney Ave.

The family festival will include a "World Stage," with performances by artists from the community and around the world; children's storytelling; a "Hip Hop Café" with live dance, music and poetry; educational activities focusing on urban environment issues and public health concerns that disproportionately affect people of color; a continuing education workshop for teachers on Urban Environmental Risk Assessment (on Monday); and workshops focusing on asthma in the African-American and Latino communities.

There will be free admission to the museum both days of the event, and free transportation will be available at pick-up points around New Haven. For further information, call the InfoTape at 432-5050 or visit the museum's website at www.
peabody.yale.edu.

Celebratory programs -- including the 19th annual Martin Luther King Day Youth Conference and the New Haven Land Trust's Annual Urban Gardening Conference -- will also be offered 8 a.m.-5 p.m. on Monday at the Dixwell Q House and the Isadore Wexler Elementary School, 209 Dixwell Ave. The event is sponsored by Citizens Bank. For further information about the youth conference, call 772-2665, ext. 214; for information about the urban garden conference, call 466-7701.

For other questions related to the event, call 432-3730.

University Library to honor King's legacy with special talk

The University Library will honor the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., on Tuesday, Jan. 19, with a special talk by Jack Hasegawa, former general secretary of Dwight Hall at Yale and current project manager for the Equity and Excellence Unit of the Connecticut State Department of Education.

Hasegawa will speak about the impact of the Japanese-American relocation experience during World War II, its correlations with the civil rights movement and lessons for the future. The "brown bag" talk will take place noon-1:30 p.m. in the Sterling Memorial Library lecture hall, 120 Wall St. All members of the Yale and New Haven communities are welcome to attend. Light refreshments will be served.

Hasegawa, who was born in a Japanese-American relocation camp, was an active participant in the Southern civil rights movement during the 1960s, as well as a community organizer in the Roxbury section of Boston and in the housing projects in Osaka and Kyoto, Japan. He has worked as a consultant and lecturer on diversity issues for a variety of educational institutions, businesses and nonprofit organizations, including Harvard College and the United Nations.

In addition to his current position with the state, Hasegawa served as project manager for Education Improvement Panel, appointed by executive order to respond to court orders on racial isolation and educational quality in the Sheff v. O'Neill case.