{"id":17310,"date":"2017-01-31T15:33:07","date_gmt":"2017-01-31T21:33:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/?p=17310"},"modified":"2017-02-01T13:02:07","modified_gmt":"2017-02-01T19:02:07","slug":"a-reflection-on-the-mlk-day-assembly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/2017\/01\/31\/a-reflection-on-the-mlk-day-assembly\/","title":{"rendered":"A Reflection on the MLK Day Assembly"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Tuesday, January 17, IMSA hosted the 4th annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Assembly. The entire IMSA community was invited to the assembly to listen to Mod 21 perform, hear two guest speakers discuss the importance of this day, and to watch a skit presented by Peer Multicultural Educators (PME) and other students.<\/span><\/p>\n

The assembly began with a rendition of \u201cLift Every Voice and Sing,\u201d also known as the \u201cBlack National Anthem\u201d from IMSA\u2019s a capella group, Mod 21. Though first written as a poem for Lincoln\u2019s birthday celebrations, it recently became popular as a song of celebration on MLK Day. <\/span><\/p>\n

Guest speaker and IMSA alumnus <\/span>Shawon Jackson <\/b>(\u201811) discussed the importance of continuing Dr. King\u2019s legacy of social justice and service to others. Senior <\/span>Nitya Talasila<\/b> reflects on his speech as being passionate, inspiring, and unifying. AASA president <\/span>Camryn Clanton <\/b>(\u201817) describes her takeaway from the speaker, saying \u201cIt\u2019s important that I stay focused and follow my dreams, no matter what anyone says.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

However, others in the audience felt chagrined by the speakers\u2019 words. An anonymous source expressed discontent with the messages that Jackson shared, saying \u201cJackson\u2019s speech itself was unnecessary politically charged, as he brought in topics on the racism behind Trump\u2019s election, instead of focusing on the role that Martin Luther King plays in society\u2026 Instead of attempting to bring our community together, his speech did quite the opposite, alienating any who disagree with him.\u201d Many disagree, questioning why someone would expect a speaker to avoid controversial topics on a holiday with such a politically-charged nature.  <\/span><\/p>\n

Keynote speaker Clayton Muhammad, founder of the Boys II Men program and Director of Communications for Aurora, spoke about the importance of positive influences and living every minute to its full potential, something he attributed to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.\u2019s success. For Camryn Clanton, the most powerful part of Muhammad\u2019s speech was when he \u201clisted\u2026 people who had to overcome obstacles to get where they are today\u2026 I kind of thought if they can do it, I can too.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Sandwiched between the two speakers was a skit written and presented by IMSA students. Written by Resident Counselor Abioye, headed by PME leaders <\/span>Sona Fokum<\/b> (\u201818), <\/span>Dhara Patel <\/b>(\u201817), and <\/span>Carson Goffinet<\/b> (\u201818), and performed by PME members and volunteers, the skit portrayed Gandhi\u2019s influence on Dr. King and the Civil Rights Movement. <\/span>At the end of the skit, the symbolic baton representing the dream of equality was offered to the audience and the actors asked if we would carry on the dream. As such, the skit was a call to action and a reminder that the dreams of Dr. King are still alive– and it is up to this generation to pick up where he left off. <\/span><\/p>\n

Shawon Jackson also participated in an open question-and-answer session in IN2 after school where he shared his perspectives on topics ranging from his career in management consulting with Deloitte to communicating with people who use offensive language.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Tuesday, January 17, IMSA hosted the 4th annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Assembly. The entire IMSA community was invited to the assembly to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":222,"featured_media":17311,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1019],"tags":[2543,2671,2102],"coauthors":[2439],"class_list":["post-17310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-imsanews","tag-aasa","tag-mlk","tag-pme"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/222"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17310"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17310\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17333,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17310\/revisions\/17333"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17310"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=17310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}