By Rama K. Ramaswamy
According to attendees of Wellesley's MLK 2018 events, organized by the World of Wellesley, part of the rationale behind observing this national holiday was to reflect and be inspired by the legacy of the man behind the movement for racial equality. Last week, MLK day had it's intended effect - not only on Twitter, which was a veritable cornucopia of quotes and comments, but throughout the Wellesley community - and specifically at Wellesley College and Hardy Elementary School, where the community gathered.
At Wellesley College, President Paula Johnson was in attendance and Dr. Layli Maparyan, Katherine Stone Kaufmann '67 Executive Director of the Wellesley Centers for Women and Professor of Africana Studies, delivered the keynote address.
"Dr. Maparyan delivered a deep and reflective keynote that highlighted the need to understand the intersection of racism, sexism, and all the other 'isms,’ and how leadership in these social movements are steeped in patriarchy and oppression,” said Michelle Chalmers, President of World of Wellesley. “In the current woman's movement, it is important we understand this and read and study the role of black women in movements that have changed our country yesterday and today. Wellesley has strong women leadership in town government, schools and higher education. The question is, how do we build solidarity and strength as a collective humanity for continued change?”
“Looking at the civil rights movement through the lens of the #MeToo movement enables us to see how the gender politics of the civil rights movement left something to be desired, despite its tremendous gains for African Americans in general,” said Maparyan when asked what she hoped to communicate via her MLK day address. “This exercise compels us to think about how we can make our social justice movements today live up to their full potential - that is, their ability to address all forms of oppression for all people for all time. It is important to recognize the connections between all forms of oppression so that we actually achieve sustainable social transformation in which everyone can ultimately embody all of their identities with dignity, safety, and joy."
“Thank you, Dr. Layli Maparyan,” said one grateful attendee after the event, “for delivering an amazing keynote that called for deep reflection, honesty and truth by saying, 'we must attend to more than Justice. We must attend to heart and soul.’”
Wellesley College Associate Provost and Academic Director of Diversity and Inclusion Dr. Robbin Chapman provided the opening remarks: “On behalf of President Paula Johnson and our Wellesley College community, I extend to you a warm welcome to the 18th Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Breakfast! This is the fourth year Wellesley College and World of Wellesley are hosting this event, and are proud of this partnership and all that we do together."
Chapman later added, after the event, that ”[it] was very powerful. The room was full and buzzing with conversation. There were first-time and significant representation from some of the houses of worship in the area. The Kuumba Singers were inspiring and had people on their feet. The keynote, Professor Layli Maparyan, took the contemplation and reflection that is part of this annual event to the its deepest level yet. We thought about Dr. King as a man, a human, and not only as an iconic figure. Her theme of MLK and Womanism left us all engaging in deeper conversation. Our event is always framed as a call to action, and I asked everyone to think about what action they will take - in the next hour, day, and over the course of the year. No action is too big, none is too small. But act we must.”
Among the attendees at Wellesley College and Hardy Elementary’s later MLK Birthday Family Celebration were World of Wellesley board members and members of the Wellesley Unitarian Universalist and St. Andrews Churches. Storyteller Ben Cunningham kept the audience riveted and Wellesley's chief of police, Board of Selectman members, Representative Alice Peisch, Superintendent of Schools David Lussier, and school cCommittee members were also in attendance.
The family event at Hardy School was described as "joyful" by parents who attended with their children. The WHS Diversity Club, they added, "did a craft asking kids to take a small flower pot, to put Play-Doh in it, make a flower on a Popsicle stick and write something they planned to do to make their home and school a better place.”
In addition, pizza and music made the event, "really fun,” according to a few 1st graders from Sprague School who came out to "do all the arts and crafts.”
This year's event at Hardy, according to one parent whose two kids attend Schofield School, “[showed] us all that there's always more work to be done," referring to Dr. King's message to make progress with respect to bridging racial divides. “Over 200 people came out to attend this year's event, and that's great to know that each person made an individual choice to show that this is important - people who came out chose unity over divisiveness.”
As Dr. King said in 1967: "It really boils down to this: that all life is interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly."
Wellesley Media was on hand to document MLK 2018. Footage of the day can be found by visiting https://youtu.be/MUtOIa9HmBo.
