ARE WE LISTENING?

We had a full week of social justice programs of both lectures and theater. Most took place on UW- La Crosse's campus but our last 2 this weekend were dramatic presentations at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Church.

Dr. King's Call for Justice: Are We Listening?  was part of yesterday's Sunday service April 8th as one of our nation's 50th anniversary commemorations of the April 4, 1968 murder of Martin Luther King, Jr. on the balcony of the Loraine Motel in Memphis Tennessee one day after delivering "Beyond Viet Nam," an anti war speech.

Some of their powerful messages of worker's rights, economic justice and black liberation were delivered by the cast of 4 :

          Narrator: Ron Malzer  








The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. :  Shaundel Spivey







     
        Younger Coretta Scott (King):
        Jazzma Holland

Older Coretta Scott King :  
Denise Christy Moss



The narrator set the historical background and the 3 readers delivered brief excerpts from speeches of still timely messages ('51- '68) from civil rights, peace and justice advocates MLK and Coretta King. As the program stated so succinctly "In a life of 39 years Dr. King together with Coretta Scott King were powerful voices to curb racism, militarization, and sexism and led the movement that took down legally encoded racial segregation, and forced the US government to write equal treatment into its laws. "

The selected excerpts touched on:

Many of MLK's speeches can be found on the website: American Rhetoric and I have included a couple links below. 

Following the presentation the cast shared their insights fielding questions one of which included how King would feel about the Black Lives Matter movement. There was no doubt these were the same issues he fought to overcome. 

Thanks to these 4 individuals for sharing their emotional dramatization that took me back to my living room sitting in front of a black and white tv screen as a child watching history being made.  And to think we are still facing many of these same issues...
And the words of the song "We Shall Overcome" filled the room.

Links:

I HAVE A DREAM

I HAVE BEEN ON THE MOUNTAIN TOP

And Coretta King's excerpts were mainly from her 2017 memoir: "Coretta: My Life , My Love, My Legacy" and My Life with Martin Luther King, Jr. ('93) both available on Amazon.


Children Will ListenYoutube Musical link to one of UU's choral selections from Sondheim's Into the Woods