Keynote addresses will highlight King commemoration week on campus

people marching
Participants march through campus to commemorate King's legacy in 2017. This year's events run January 15-20.
Image credit - University Communications
headshot April Reign
April Reign, Monday's keynote speaker
Image credit - courtesy photo
headshot Bree Newsome
Bree Newsome, Wednesday's keynote speaker
Image credit - courtesy photo
headshot Christy S. Coleman
Christy S. Coleman will lead a presentation Tuesday at the DeVos Center.
Image credit - courtesy photo

A full slate of events on Monday, January 15, ushers in Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration Week on campus.

With the theme, #WhereDoWeGoFromHere, events begin at 9:30 a.m. in the Kirkhof Center with an Upcycling session and continue with a free campus lunch, and a silent march to the Fieldhouse for the keynote address by April Reign at 1:30 p.m. All events are listed online at gvsu.edu/mlk.

Reign, an attorney and writer, was the creator of the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite in 2015, when her tweet critical of the 88th Academy Awards ceremony and lack of people of color nominated in major acting and directing categories went viral.

A panel discussion on the week's theme will conclude Monday's events; it will start at 2:30 p.m. in Kirkhof Center, rooms 2215/2216.

Other commemoration week events are listed below.

• Tuesday, January 16: "How Shall We Remember?" 7 p.m., DeVos Center, Loosemore Auditorium; the Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies will host a Common Ground event featuring Christy S. Coleman, CEO of the American Civil War Museum in Richmond, Virginia. Coleman will offer insight into contemporary questions about history, identity and democracy. Open and free to the public.

• Wednesday, January 17: Keynote presentation by Bree Newsome, 4:30 p.m., Kirkhof Center; Newsome is a filmmaker who was in the national spotlight in 2015 when she climbed a flagpole in Columbia, South Carolina, to lower its Confederate flag.

• Friday, January 19: Shabbat dinner, 6 p.m., Kirkhof Center

• Saturday, January 20: MLK Day of Service and Solidarity, 9 a.m.-4 p.m., sponsored by the Community Service Learning Center.

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