Academy Celebrates MLK Day 2024 Through “Black Joy and Black Pain in Resistance”

By  ERIN HAN and MARVIN SHIM

On Jan. 15 the Academy celebrated MLK Day, reflecting on the life of Martin Luther King Jr. and the values he upheld. The holiday was recognized at PEA in the form of featured speakers and various workshops attended by both students and faculty. The previous night, the annual social justice showcase, UnSilenced, took place in Goel and enlivened the audience with song, poetry, dance, rap, and film.

Since its inception, the UnSilenced showcase has been entirely student-run and this year was no exception. In collaboration with committee facilitators Willie Perdomo and Elizabeth Calandra, UnSilenced student directors began preparations in November, which revved up during the weeks between fall and winter break.

Upper and student director Bella Bueno shared that the student organizers met frequently beginning over a month prior to the performance: “We met every Thursday [beginning in November] and the directors talked a lot over the breaks to figure out what performers [would be in the show]. So once we got back, one of my main roles was sending out a lot of emails.” Bueno continued, “We had three rehearsals [after winter break], and already had a sense of what each performer would be doing since we had met with them right before the break. [Through the rehearsals] we got a sense of what people’s talents and vibes…were, [and started to] organize it all and build it together.”

Performances ranged from songs and original rap to jazz and spoken word poetry. Thus, each student on the main stage each used their own medium to voice social change.

Bueno recalled her experience as an audience member at last year’s showcase, saying, “Last year I really looked up to all the people who did UnSilenced and who managed it. I was just amazed by every word…Through the singing, through the art, through everything, through the dance, you could just feel the emotions.”

She continued, highlighting the important opportunity that UnSilenced poses, “I think it’s a really, really powerful show. It’s [an opportunity] for performers to come up on stage and show through art what pain and joy,…in their blackness or their own race, means to them.”

The morning after the night of the showcase marked the beginning of MLK Day. Preparations for the multitude of events that took place on this federal holiday were led hand-in-hand by the student-seated MLK committee and collaborative faculty members.

Members of the Exeter community, students, staff and faculty alike, took part in a variety of speaking events and workshops in celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In Love Gym, step dance teams Precision and Outkast started the day with a performance before the Concert Choir performed the ode “Hymn to Freedom’’ to the assembled crowd. Afterwards, keynote speaker Dr. Tricia Rose, a professor at Brown University, gave a speech to the assembly about what it meant to honor the reverend’s legacy.

Rose highlighted the deep levels of systematic racism she found as a teenager in Harlem and praised King for his work in the American civil rights movement, describing him as bold and unabashed to fight against the inequality and hypocrisy of the country. “Everyone can love and create a love that would help Black people, but you have to know what folks have been through,” Rose said, “If you don’t know that, then love actually becomes a capacity and a way to ask us to be quiet and to accept the suffering and the erasure of the love that will actually heal us.” After she concluded her speech, the audience gave a standing ovation.

Following her speech, students were able to participate in workshops facilitated by alumni, visiting speakers, and Exeter faculty.

Assistant Director of Equity and Inclusion Kevin Pajaro-Mariñez, who served as a co-chair of the planning of MLK Day, spoke on the goals of the workshops. “I think the workshops aligned with the vision in that we provided structured opportunities for engagement and learning to both students and adults on campus. More importantly, the MLK workshops subcommittee worked tirelessly to ensure that the workshops provided different modes of engagement.” He continued, “I hope that both students and faculty took away the fact that King’s legacy is expansive. We ought to be curious about the multitude of ways King thought through and practiced justice and building community.”

Meanwhile, in Love Gym, three Black entrepreneurs based in New Hampshire answered questions about their businesses and the challenges they faced during their journey. Oneta Modern, owner of The Office Lounge, spoke of her inspiration to be an entrepreneur upon witnessing her mother’s courage. Daryl Browne, co-owner of Soleil’s Salt Cave, and Lionel Loveless, owner of Officially Knotted Bowties, each also described their own respective obstacles due to prejudice.

By the end of the day of celebration, people found themselves grateful for Dr. King’s teachings and the footprint he left behind. Pajaro-Mariñez reflected, “MLK Day for me means an opportunity to think meaningfully about the legacy of King. Even more than just thinking, I feel encouraged to concretely practice the ways King thought about being in community: a kind of interdependence with a lens that centers justice for all [marginalized] people.”

Note: One workshop, entitled Black-Palestinian Solidarity, was cancelled for unspecified reasons the day before the event; this will be examined in the next issue of The Exonian on Feb. 8, 2024.