Last year, a record 3,700 people attended the the Peabody Museum's Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration, including these youngsters, who are taking part in a drumming circle, one of the activities also planned for this year's event.   Also see President Levin's Remarks on Martin Luther King Day

Campus events honor legacy
of Martin Luther King Jr.

A celebration of the life and legacy of the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. that began on the legendary civil rights leader's actual birthday on Jan. 15, will continue with a two-day festival Jan. 20 and 21 and other events during the week. Highlights of the week's events include a two-day tribute to King at the Peabody Museum of Natural History; a day-long series of talks, readings and other activities at Battell Chapel; arts activities, music and film screenings at the Afro-American Cultural Center; and discussions offered by the Graduate School's Office for Diversity and Equal Opportunity. The following is a summary, by date, of events paying tribute to King, who received an honorary LL.D. degree from Yale in 1964. Sunday, Jan. 20 The Peabody Museum's tribute to King begins at noon on Sunday, Jan. 20, with a performance of "Drum Circle for Peace" by Michael Mills and "Drums No Guns." The jazz group Harry Ellis and Deep Intentions will follow. Among the other performers at the Peabody on Sunday are St. Luke's Steel Band, the African Arawak Connection and storytellers Edi Jackson and Karen Johnson. The Peabody Museum auditorium will turn into the "Hip Hop Café" -- a hub of music, dancing and free snacks throughout the day -- and interactive stations around the museum will engage participants in social and environmental issues. A highlight of the Peabody's celebration will be the Arnold J. Alderman Memorial Lecture by the noted environmental justice advocate Robert Bullard. Bullard, who teaches sociology and heads the Environmental Justice Resource Center at Clark Atlanta University, is considered the nation's leading expert on race and the environment. He is the author of 10 books and many essays that address environmental justice, environmental racism, urban land use and other related topics. He will speak at 3 p.m. in the auditorium of the Peabody Museum, 170 Whitney Ave. Bullard's talk is made possible through the support of the children of Arnold J. Alderman. At 4:30 p.m., "Eyes on the Prize," an award-winning film series on America's civil rights movement, will be shown in Rm. 211 of Linsly-Chittenden Hall, 63 High St. An interfaith prayer service sponsored by the Interfaith Alliance for Justice will be held at 10 p.m. in Dwight Hall. Monday, Jan. 21 Events honoring King will be held in many venues throughout the Yale campus on Monday, the official Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Welcome Centers, which will provide maps of campus and helpful information, will be at Dwight Hall, 67 High St., in the morning, and in Rm. 114 of Sheffield-Sterling-Strathcona Hall (SSS), corner of Grove and Prospect streets, throughout the day. A multi-media display highlighting King's life and a commentary will be on exhibit in the rotunda of Woolsey Hall, corner of College and Grove streets. Opening ceremonies for the day's activities begin at 9 a.m. at Battell Chapel, corner of Elm and College streets. A joint venture of the Martin Luther King Day Coalition with the Black Church at Yale, the Yale Divinity School and students of the Yale Graduate School, the event features welcoming speeches, readings and a performance by the group Divine Grace. At 10:15 a.m., President Richard C. Levin will speak. He will be followed by John K. Johnson, the student director of the Afro-American Cultural Center and a proponent of Martin Luther King Day celebrations. At 10:30 a.m., the Peabody Museum, which will continue to operate its Hip-Hop Café throughout the day, will host a Community Poetry Open Mic. All are invited to share their poetry. Listed among the performers at the Peabody on Monday are the Soulettes drill team, Teller and the Troubador, African Arawak Connection and Harry Ellis and Deep Intentions. From 10:45 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., there will be events for Yale College students and graduate students organized by Dwight Hall, the Office for Diversity and Equal Opportunity at the Graduate School and the McDougal Graduate Student Center. These include a mobilization of pre-selected volunteers and collections for New Haven Reads and other local programs. A community interfaith worship Service sponsored by Interfaith Cooperative Ministries will take place at noon at Immanuel Baptist Church, 1324 Chapel St. The Rev. Samuel Ross Lee will speak. From noon to 6 p.m. the Afro-American Cultural Center, 211 Park St., will feature ongoing film screenings of "Power to the People," "A Great and Mighty Walk" and "Martin Luther King Speaks at Stanford, 1967." Refreshments will be served. The Fairhaven Breakers will put on a break-dance performance at the Peabody Museum at 12:30 p.m., and from 1 to 3:30 p.m., a Poetry Slam led by Ngoma will give invited poets a chance to compete in verse. The Graduate School's Office for Diversity and Equal Opportunity is sponsoring two afternoon discussion panels in Rm. 114 of SSS. The first, titled "Civil Rights Movement: Dead or Alive" will begin at 1:30 p.m. It will feature civil rights scholars and community leaders, including historian Rogers Smith, a former member of the Yale faculty who is now at the University of Pennsylvania; Adolph Reed of the New School for Social Research; Monifa Adele of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement in New York City; and Barbara Tinney of the New Haven Family Alliance. The second discussion, on "Contemporary Art Forms and the Political Mobilization of Youth," will begin at 3:30 p.m. It will feature the artists Jonathan Jackson and D'Lo. For more information about these events, contact the Office for Diversity and Equal Opportunity at (203) 432-0763 or send e-mail to grad.diversity@yale.edu. Later that afternoon, the Graduate School will host a Martin Luther King Day reception, 5:30-7 p.m. at the McDougal Graduate Student Center Common Room, 320 York St. The day's festivities will wind down with closing ceremonies at Battell Chapel at 7 p.m. Events include an announcement of the winners of an essay contest and a talent showcase with Rhythmic Blue, Unity, Divine Grace and other performers. A candlelit procession will follow. Wednesday, Jan. 23 The School of Nursing's Dean Committee on Diversity will celebrate King's legacy on Wednesday, Jan. 23, by honoring two individuals, a corporation and a local health clinic for their contributions to the elimination of health disparities in diverse populations. The honorees are the Bayer Corporation; the Fair Haven Community Health Center; Karina Danvers, coordinator at the School of Nursing's Connecticut AIDS Education and Training Center; and Dr. Forrester A. "Woody" Lee, assistant dean of the Office of Multicultural Affairs at the School of Medicine. The keynote speaker at the awards ceremony will be Margaret Grey, associate dean for research affairs at the nursing school and the Independence Foundation Professor of Nursing. Grey, an advocate for the elimination of health disparities, will speak on the topic "Lessons Learned from Research in a Multi-ethnic Community." The public is invited to attend the ceremony, which will begin at 4:30 p.m. in Rm. 118 of the School of Nursing, 100 Church Street South. Light refreshments will be served. Friday, Jan. 25 On Friday, Jan. 25, a program titled "MLK: Prophetic Christian Vision of the Gospel and Social Justice" take place 6:30-9 p.m. at a location to be announced. This worship and panel presentation will explore the prophetic Christian vision of King. Theologians and community leaders will discuss the relevance of the Christian gospel to the attainment of social justice in issues of race, violence and labor. For more information on this event, call Dwight Hall at (203) 432-2420. The campus' Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration officially began on Jan. 15 with a reading of King's own words by students, staff and faculty in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health (EPH). "I thought it would be appropriate to have a reception on King's actual birthday," says Curtis Patton, professor and director of international medical studies in EPH, who read excerpts from King's "Letter From a Birmingham Jail." The event was organized by the EPH minority affairs committee. On Jan. 17, the Program for Humanities in Medicine sponsored a talk by Susan Lederer in the History of Medicine program at Yale, whose talk "Red, White and Black: Blood and Race in the USA," explored the ways in which public health policies concerning blood transfusions have reflected prevalent attitudes and prejudices in American history. All events are free and open to the public. Individual listings for the Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration events can be found in the Calendar section of this newspaper. Class schedule changes for MLK Day To accommodate the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences has announced the following changes in the schedule for Yale College and Graduate School classes: No classes will be held on Monday, Jan. 21, and classes normally scheduled to meet on that day will instead be held on Friday, Jan. 18. Classes regularly held on Fridays will not meet on Jan. 18. 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