Martin Luther King Jr. is shown at the White House after meeting with President Lyndon Johnson to discuss civil rights, 1963. Photograph by Warren K. Leffler/U.S. News & World Report Magazine Photograph Collection, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

Spotlighting a less-known aspect of the work of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Bates College will dedicate its Jan. 20-21 King Day programming to exploring issues of financial inequality and debt.

The theme of the observances is Debt and Inequality: The Relevance of King’s Forgotten Economic Message.

Never out of date, the question of financial inequality is especially pertinent now, given a national election season and “fiscal cliff” debate in which issues of economic fairness have been central.

Anthea Butler, associate professor of religious studies and African American studies at the University of Pennsylvania, offers a sermon and the keynote address at Bates’ Martin Luther King Jr. Day observances. Photograph by Byron Maldonado.

Taking place Sunday and Monday, Jan. 20-21, Bates’ programming features films; workshops; two addresses by Anthea Butler, a theologian whose forthcoming book explores the connection between Sarah Palin’s politics and her religion; and performances including one by the Bates student group Sankofa.

Sunday’s events include documentary films examining issues of corporate power and civil rights history, as well as the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Service, featuring a sermon by Butler titled God and the 99 Percent.

On Monday the college presents Martin Luther King Jr. and America’s Bad Check: America’s Poor in the 21st Century, Butler’s keynote address; a debate between Bates and Morehouse College students; a play; workshops; and the Sankofa event.

• See a complete schedule of King Day programming at Bates.
• See a video about the creation of Sankofa’s 2013 performance.
• Learn more about Anthea Butler.
• Learn more about Sankofa.
  

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All King Day events are open to the public at no cost, but a few do require tickets for admission; see the complete schedule for details. For more information, please call 207-786-6400.

In selecting this year’s theme, “we wanted to call attention to the fact that the Rev. Dr. King’s vision included economic justice,” explains Charles Nero, chair of the college’s King Day committee and a professor of rhetoric and American cultural studies.

“The people hit hard in the Great Recession have been middle- and working-class folks, the poor and people without substantial assets, such as students.”

The 2012 Sankofa performance at Bates. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/Bates College.

King, who at the time of his assassination was planning a “Poor People’s Campaign” that would march on Washington, D.C., had a clear view of the interrelatedness of poverty and injustice.

But, as Colleen O’Connor wrote in the Denver Post in January 2012, “Many never learned about King’s crusade for a guaranteed annual income or have forgotten he was assassinated while supporting the working poor — sanitation workers on strike [in Memphis] because of low wages and dangerous working conditions.”

For the public at large, King Day at Bates will provide “the opportunity to see a college community engage with a major social issue of our time,” says Nero.

“Our keynote speaker, Dr. Butler, will challenge us in new ways to recommit ourselves to King’s vision of economic justice. Our debate with Morehouse College addresses the issue of the role the government should play in reducing poverty.” And the films and workshops, as well as Aaron Calafato’s play about student loan debt, will address myriad dimensions of financial justice in the U.S. and abroad.

Paul D. Miller, the musician, essayist and media artist also known as DJ Spooky, presents a live performance of his internationally renowned multimedia project Rebirth of a Nation at 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 2, at Lewiston Middle School, 75 Central Ave.

Co-sponsored by departments and programs at Bates College including the Bates College Museum of Art and the Multicultural Center, the performance will be followed by a panel discussion featuring the artist with Mark Bessire, director of the art museum; Dale Chapman, assistant professor of music at Bates; and Charles Nero, associate professor of rhetoric.

Admission to the Bates event is $10 for general seating. For tickets, please follow this link. For more information contact 207-786-6135 or olinarts@bates.edu.

The performance takes place just days before the 93rd anniversary of the release of Birth of a Nation, the silent film by D.W. Griffith whose racist interpretations of American history during and after the Civil War have been a source of outrage for nearly a century. Miller, of New York, adapted Griffith’s film for Rebirth of A Nation.

“With the news dominated by broken treaties, ethnic oppression, raw power grabs and security threats, the time seems just right for revisiting” the film, Miller writes in his program notes. “There are so many resonances with contemporary culture’s indefatigable sense of shock and surprise.”

His piece, Miller writes, “posits no answers, only more questions.”

Starting with a newly restored print of Griffith’s film, Miller edited, manipulated and remixed it. Combining this footage with his original score, as recorded by the Kronos Quartet, Miller now performs a live mix, creating a unique version of Rebirth of a Nation at each show.

The piece was commissioned by and performed at the Lincoln Center Festival, New York; the Festival d’Automne à Paris; the Vienna Festival; and the Spoleto Festival USA. It has been presented at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago; the Romaeuropa Festival in Italy; Harvard University; the Herod Atticus amphitheater in Athens; and many other venues.

Miller is best-known by his “constructed persona,” “DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid.” He has recorded a huge volume of music, solo and in collaboration with artists as diverse as Iannis Xenakis, Kool Keith a.k.a. Doctor Octagon, Pierre Boulez, Killa Priest from Wu-Tang Clan, Steve Reich, Yoko Ono and Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore.

He scored the 1998 film Slam, which starred critically acclaimed poet Saul Williams and received awards from the Cannes and Sundance festivals. In 2006, Miller received access to the vaults of the classic reggae label Trojan Records, resulting in his landmark Sanctuary Records compilation In Fine Style, DJ Spooky Presents 50,000 Volts of Trojan Records!!!

Among his other recordings are Optometry (Thirsty Ear, 2002), a jazz project featuring Matthew Shipp, William Parker, Joe McPhee, Carl Hancock Rux, Daniel Bernard Roumain and High Priest from Anti-Pop Consortium; Dubtometry (Thirsty Ear, 2003), a dub remix of the same, featuring Lee “Scratch” Perry and Mad Professor; and Riddim Clash (Play, 2004), a collaboration with Twilight Dub Sound System.

Miller took part in the 2007 Venice Bienniale with the video installation New York is Now, which originally appeared at the Luanda Triennial in Angola in 2006.

Miller has written for The Village Voice, The Source, Artforum, Raygun, Rap Pages, Paper Magazine and other periodicals. With noted African American poet Steve Cannon, he is co-publisher of A Gathering of Tribes, a magazine dedicated to new works by writers from a multicultural context. Miller was the first editor-at-large of the cutting-edge digital media magazine, Artbyte: The Magazine of Digital Culture.

His first collection of essays, Rhythm Science (MIT Press, 2004), was included in several “best books of 2004″ lists, including those of the Guardian (UK) and Publishers Weekly. Sound Unbound, an anthology of writings on sound art and multi-media edited by Miller, will be published in paperback by MIT Press in May.

Along with the Museum of Art and Multicultural Center, sponsoring Miller’s Bates engagement are the college’s departments of theater and rhetoric, and of music; the program in environmental studies; the offices of the dean of the faculty, student activities and admissions; the Bates Dance Festival and the Harward Center for Community Partnerships.

The Rev. Lawrence Edward Carter Sr., Morehouse College professor of religion, is the keynote speaker for the 2008 Martin Luther King Jr. Day observances at Bates College. Classes at the college are canceled and special programming is scheduled throughout the day with an emphasis on the theme Modernizing King: Old Roots, New Struggles.

Scheduled for 10:45 a.m. Monday, Jan. 21, in the Bates College Chapel, Carter’s address is part of a celebration of King’s life and work that includes performances, art exhibitions, workshops and orations. All events are open to the public free of charge. For more information, call 207-786-6400 or see a complete list of events scheduled for Martin Luther King Day.

Chaired by Charles Nero, associate professor of rhetoric, African American and American cultural studies, the Bates committee that organizes the annual observance of King’s birthday chose Modernizing King: Old Roots, New Struggles as its theme. Nero explains the thinking behind the choice:

“This year’s process represents a break with the past, when we selected themes based upon a quote by King. The committee decided to try something new, so several committee members brought ideas and themes. Tonya Taylor, Bates Class of 2002 and the program coordinator for the Multicultural Center, contributed the one that resonated with all of us. She wanted us to think about King’s relevance to today as well as to remove him from a continual association with death,” Nero says.

“We were all thrilled by Ms. Taylor’s proposed theme and her rationale,” Nero continues. “Thus, this year we want to explore, through workshops, presentations, debates, performances and artwork, Dr. King’s ongoing relevance to successive generations, including the impact of his principles of social justice upon coalitions, identities and struggles he did not imagine in his lifetime.”

The King Day observance begins at 11 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 19, with a memorial service for Amadou Cissé ’01, a graduate student at the University of Chicago who died last fall. Sponsored by the Office of Multicultural Affairs and the Multifaith Chaplaincy, the service will be held in the Bates College Chapel, College Street.

The observance continues at 6 p.m., Sunday, Jan. 20, with an opening reception for an MLK Day Committee-commissioned art exhibition by first-year students Clyde Bango of Harare, Zimbabwe, and Uriel Gonzalez of Von Ormy, Texas, in Chase Hall Gallery, 56 Campus Ave.

The eve of the holiday features a memorial service of worship in the College Chapel, College Street, at 7 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 20. The Rev. Marshall Elijah Hatch P ’10 of Chicago, recipient of the 2006 Weston Howland Jr. Award for Distinguished National Leadership based on his community work addressing issues of drugs, violence and poverty, delivers the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day Memorial Service of Worship sermon. The service includes musical performances by Bates students, including a solo by first-year vocalist Megan Guynes of Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. Following the service, the Multifaith Chaplaincy hosts an 8:30 p.m. reception with Hatch at the Multicultural Center, 63 Campus Ave.

Student debaters from Bates and Morehouse colleges kick off King Day itself with an oratorical event, Minutes and Words of Eternity: The Dr. Benjamin Elijah Mays Speech Invitational.

The debaters will be introduced at 9 a.m. in Chase Hall Lounge, 56 Campus Ave. The debaters will argue the topic, “This house would require that electronic waste be disposed of in the nations that produce it” at 9:30 a.m. The match has historic resonance for the schools, which share a continuing commitment to collaborative projects. The nation’s largest liberal arts college for men, Morehouse was Martin Luther King Jr.’s alma mater. One of its longtime presidents was 1920 Bates graduate and accomplished debater Benjamin Mays, a lifelong adviser to the great civil rights leader. Mays eulogized King in 1968.

Mays, who served for 27 years as president of Morehouse and was the first African American chairman of the Atlanta School Board, inspired generations of civil rights leaders with both his words and actions. King called Mays “my spiritual mentor and my intellectual father,” says Katherine Stefko, director of archives and special collections for the Edmund S. Muskie Archives, who prepared the display in consultation with Associate Professor of History Hilmar Jensen. An exhibit in the lobby of Ladd Library celebrates Mays’ life, his long-time connection with Bates, and his many contributions, both direct and indirect, to the public and political struggle for civil rights, Stefko says. The exhibition will be on display through the month of May.

Carter delivers his 10:45 a.m. keynote address in the Bates Chapel. The keynote address will be prefaced at 10:30 a.m. with music by the Bates Jazz Band. A Morehouse professor of religion and an instructor at the Morehouse Medical School’s Master of Public Health Program, Carter also serves as the college archivist and curator. The first dean of the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel at Morehouse since 1979, Carter has honored the life of King and devoted considerable time traveling the globe as an advocate for peace and nonviolence.

In 1985, Carter founded the Morehouse College International Hall of Honor, which consists of 131 original oil portraits of distinguished leaders in the civil and human rights movements, including King, Mays, Mahatma Gandhi, Adam Clayton Powell Jr. and Thurgood Marshall. Carter also founded the college’s Gandhi Institute for Reconciliation in 2000.

Born in Dawson, Ga., and reared in Columbus, Ohio, Carter received his bachelor’s degree from Virginia University of Lynchburg, followed by his master’s in theology, his S.T.M. in pastoral care and his doctorate all from Boston University. He completed further study at Andover Newton Theological School, the Ohio University, Harvard University and Georgia State University, New York University, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Brown University, Spelman College and George Washington University. A licensed and ordained Baptist minister, Carter was named a 1994 Fulbright Scholar and a National Endowment for the Humanities fellow in 1993 and 1996. He is the recipient of and administrator for numerous budgets, fellowships, gifts, grants and endowments.

From 1996 through 2002, Carter visited Bates each summer to lead a seminar at the college’s Benjamin Elijah Mays Institute. A widely published author on the psychology of religion, religion and ethics and the life of  Gandhi and King, Carter is the author of several works about Mays, including Walking Integrity: Benjamin Elijah Mays as Mentor to Martin Luther King Jr. (Mercer University Press, 1998).

Concurrent Monday afternoon workshops hosted by various academic departments and student organizations begin at 1:20, 2:35 and 4 p.m. in classrooms throughout Pettengill and Dana Chemistry halls. The workshops, featuring speakers, films and discussion, will focus on various topics tied to the day’s theme Modernizing King: Old Roots, New Struggles. Topics range from diversity at Bates, in a panel discussion led by President Elaine Tuttle Hansen, to the spoken word and the Harlem Renaissance, from music, technology and black emancipation to King’s link to race, class and the hip hop generation. For more information about the workshops, call 207-786-6400 or see a complete listing.

The entire King Day observance concludes with a performance in the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall at 7:30 p.m. Bates students commissioned to create cultural work for the occasion present music, dance and spoken-word pieces. The evening features senior Greg Waters of London, England, jazz; juniors Kevin Chambers, of East Orange, N.J., and Shawki White of Danville, Ill., hip hop/rap; senior Alissa Horowitz, of Yorktown Heights, N.Y., dance; and Sulo Dissanayake ’09, dramatic performance.

The college also co-sponsors an annual MLK Day Read-In where faculty, staff, students and members of the community will share a picture book with Martel School students in grades 4-6 at 1:30 p.m., Wednesday, Jan. 23. Those interested in volunteering should call 207-786-8351. (The snow date for this event is Wednesday, Jan. 30.)