Academy Observes Martin Luther King Jr. Day
By the 145th Executive Board
Content warning: The following article includes mention of the death of a student in the last three paragraphs.
The Davis brothers speak on how opera can tell stories.
On Jan. 16, the Academy gathered to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK) Day. This year’s program included a variety of workshops and speeches from keynote speakers Anthony Davis ‘69 and Christopher “Kip” Davis ‘71 and featured speaker Deo Mwano.
In the weeks leading up to Monday, students and faculty on the MLK Committee collaborated on organizing workshops, speakers, and numerous other endeavors, which included service projects, a library exhibit, and a student-run fundraiser show on topics of social justice — also known to the community as UnSilenced. The events of the big day were realized under the direction of Instructor in English Courtney Marshall, Associate Dean of Multicultural Affairs Hadley Camilus, and Instructor in Health Brandon Thomas, who chaired the MLK Committee with the assistance of sub-committee heads.
The Academy began MLK Day with a performance from OutKast and Precision, the Academy’s male and female step dance teams, and a singing of “Lift Every Voice and Sing” — also known as the Black national anthem — by the concert choir. Keynote speakers Anthony Davis ‘69 and Christopher “Kip” Davis ‘71 then took the stage. Anthony Davis is an internationally recognized composer of operatic, symphonic, choral, and chamber works, and a winner of the Pulitzer Prize for his opera The Central Park Five. Christopher Davis is an actor and director, story writer for X, The Life and Times of Malcolm X, performed the role of Malcolm X, in El Hajj Malik: A Play about Malcolm X by NR Davidson, and chairs multiple organizations dedicated to serving underserved groups. In a lively back-and-forth, the two alumnus siblings recounted stories from their days at the Academy and their journeys pursuing their work.
“I don’t think that the audience really took away what the speakers were really trying to hone in on,” Instructor in Health and keynote emcee Courtney Shaw said. “There were a lot of unfortunate, unfortunate experiences that drove [the speakers] to success. There was a lot of pushback…a lot of people saying that they shouldn’t do music this way or produce…this way.”
“My biggest takeaway [from their speech] was [that] there is something on the inside of each one of us that makes us so unique, and it is so important that we hold on to whatever that is,” Shaw continued. “Stick to yourself, stay true to yourself. I can only imagine how it must have felt being one of the only Black kids at Exeter at the time, especially when it was still [an] all boys school.”
While reflecting on the keynote speech, one detail Shaw expressed discontent about was that Thomas, her co-emcee, did not join OutKast and Precision in their pre-speech step performance. “I’m just really shocked that he did not step,” Shaw said. “We are calling out Mr. Thomas. He needs to show us his moves cause he’s a stepper. Like why would you sit there and not step?”
After the keynote speech, students had two blocks dedicated to a workshop of their choosing and the featured speaker Deo Mwano, who spoke on Martin Luther King Jr.’s “What is Your Life’s Blueprint?” speech.
Marshall described the process of planning the workshops. “I worked with Dr. Bramlett to put together a proposal form where anybody could write in somebody who they think would be a good speaker,” Marshall said. “The job of the workshop committee was to compile all that information and make sure that all the workshops align with the ideas of the day.”
The end result was a dazzling selection of offerings that explored topics including the racial wealth gap, coffee and cafe culture in Black and Brown communities, protest poster making, relationships in indigenous communities, writing for justice, Black art in America, and more.
In one workshop, Instructor in English Sahar Ullah led students in a reading of Katori Hall’s play, The Mountaintop, which imagines Martin Luther King Jr.’s last moments in Room 306 of the Lorraine Motel, the eve of his assassination in 1968. The play possesses only two speakers: King and an angel sent from God, Camae.
“What we get from him and her talking are lots of ideas about [King’s] life, about him being human, about his faults,” Ullah said. “He wasn’t perfect.”
“What does Black liberation mean? Can a movement survive without a leader? Camae makes a good argument [to King] that even with you gone, somebody will pick it up, but there will never be someone like you,” Ullah continued.
Some initiatives dedicated to MLK Day occurred in the week preceding the holiday. As chair of the MLK Community Service Committee, Director of Service Learning Elizabeth Reyes worked with OutKast and Precision to put together a performance at Lincoln Street School and Main Street Elementary School on Wednesday, Jan. 11. As part of their service project, other committee members and volunteers spent the day helping elementary school students learn about civil rights and diversity through art, music, and writing.
On the actual MLK Day, Reyes facilitated a workshop to collect donated clothing from dorms to give to others in need.
UnSilenced also opened the Saturday night before MLK Day. Student performances took the form of a variety of mediums — dance, song, rap, poetry, spoken word, speech — and touched on a multitude of social justice issues. Seniors Ki Odums and Kodi Lopez and uppers Akubah Ndubah and Rowan Flanagan served as directors for the show. Under their leadership, the committee fundraised for The Conscious Kid, an education, research, and policy organization that supports families and educators in taking action to disrupt racism, inequity, and bias.
“One of my favorite parts about MLK Day is UnSilenced,” Reyes said. “I had a lovely time Saturday night seeing the students perform their own works and hear their poems and see their dances and feel the energy in the room. It’s always a highlight of my year.”
Associate Library Director Beth Rohloff worked with students to create an exhibit in the library. “The students in my group did an amazing job,” Rohloff said. “They wanted to find a way to celebrate the work of activists who lived before and during MLK’s time and those that continue to do work for social and racial justice.”
Rohloff continued, “They really owned each part of the process, from the initial idea to the poster design, the final installation of the exhibit. The goal was for the poster exhibit to reinforce what people might already know or to learn something new about an activist, and now those images will hang in the Library Commons along with a corresponding book display in the Library Commons through all of Black History Month.”
Many faculty expressed praise for the students they worked with. “The students who participated in the play reading — Nia, Riches, Bella, Jodi, Sinna, Sofia, and Anushka — did an amazing job. I am so very proud of them and want them to remember,” Ullah said. “Throughout the week, individual students and teachers have dropped by to tell me how moved they were. I knew as soon as they stood up to take a bow that they knew it was such a special performance. We only rehearsed once. Just incredible.”
Faculty also reflected on Martin Luther King Jr., the impact of the day, and what it means to them.
“We always go to the Lorraine Motel, the Civil Rights Museum, [where King was assassinated],” Shaw said. “They really thought that they ended that dream in that moment. You can kill the person, but you can’t kill the dream. You just can’t kill the dream.”
As a teacher, Shaw said, “Every day is a legacy for me, as far as doing what I’m doing — being here. Having my own table, having my own classrooms, that’s what he was fighting for.”
Ullah spoke of the holiday’s potential to reach all groups. “It is an institutionalized moment. That means not just one affinity group or one community has to take time out of work to remember. It means that everybody’s called to remember whether they want to or not,” Ullah said.
“I think that’s important,” Ullah continued. “I think it also gives us an opportunity because sometimes when people are memorialized by the state, [they hide] the parts that make people uncomfortable. Now we celebrate him, but it gives us an opportunity to say, ‘Hey, this person that you now consider to be important was a person that was not loved [by everyone] and maligned.’”
“It’s good to remember that because we still do it. I’d say the movement’s still ongoing. It’s ongoing and we see that it’s still difficult to get people to understand the importance of the work for social justice,” Ullah concluded.
Marshall recognized that people come to engage in the program from different backgrounds. “How do you speak to a community where people might be very familiar with Martin Luther King and very familiar with the civil rights movement [while] other people are not as familiar? [How do you] still make a day that allows all of those people, no matter what their knowledge level is, to feel like they had a good day and got something out of it? That’s my favorite part,” Marshall said.
With this in mind, the committee implemented various techniques into programs with the goal of increasing student engagement. One workshop, Cross the Line, for example, involves students getting up and moving their bodies around.
Marshall also encouraged anyone interested in joining the MLK committee to just do it. “There’s a place for everybody. There are all these different spaces on campus to think about how you could do something for the celebration day,” Marshall said. “If you’re not a big public speaker or you prefer to work in a group, there are so many various sub-committee groups for you to join. You will get to meet lots of new students and adults on campus.”
At noon, administration halted programming following an announcement of upper Matthew Clemson’s death. The afternoon workshop block was canceled and replaced by dorm and community spaces.
In an email to parents on the same day, Principal William Rawson said, “We gathered as a community in Love Gym earlier this afternoon to share the tragic news of the death of one of our students. Our entire community is understandably shaken. I have been with the members of the student’s family throughout this sad day and we will continue to support them as they process this devastating loss that no parent should have to face.”
“In addition to supporting the family, we are caring for our students on campus. We are relying on best practices for responding to a sudden tragic event such as this and are going to provide a structure for students, with modified expectations and room for flexibility,” Rawson said.