{"id":143773,"date":"2022-01-13T12:05:30","date_gmt":"2022-01-13T17:05:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=143773"},"modified":"2022-01-21T14:49:31","modified_gmt":"2022-01-21T19:49:31","slug":"bates-announces-mlk-day-2022-events","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2022\/01\/13\/bates-announces-mlk-day-2022-events\/","title":{"rendered":"Bates announces MLK Day 2022 events"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It’s a term you may have heard \u2014 “decolonization” \u2014 without fully grasping its meaning or relevance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If that’s true for you, then welcome to Bates’ 2022 Martin Luther King Jr. Day observance, which this year offers an array of talks, panels, and workshops<\/a> \u2014 available by Zoom \u2014 on the theme “Decolonization and Liberation.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In simple terms, the word “decolonization” is a prefix, verb, and suffix, coined in the 1930s and suggesting action \u2014 away from one state of existence to another. But what is that other? How does decolonization relate to liberation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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How to Join MLK Day at Bates<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

This year\u2019s MLK Day programming will presented as Zoom gatherings, which are open to the public. For each event listed below, a registration link follows the event description. Pre-registration is required. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Kirsten Marjerison\/Bates College<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

The concept is hardly just one thing and certainly not simple, explain the co-chairs of the college’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day Planning Committee<\/a>, Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies Tyler Harper and Assistant Professor of Theater Cliff Odle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This year’s theme recognizes that decolonization is not a single concept or practice, but rather represents a constellation of complementary \u2014 and occasionally conflicting \u2014 visions for liberation,” they say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As such, this year\u2019s MLK keynote event, on Monday, Jan. 17, features not just one speaker but a keynote panel of Maine-based thinkers, practitioners, and activists<\/a> whose work challenges us to imagine new possibilities for community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Moderated by Bates Visiting Assistant Professor of Africana Cassandra Shepard (top center), the MLK keynote panelists are, clockwise from top right, Maria Girouard, Pious Ali, Jordia Benjamin, Julia Sleeper-Whiting \u201908, and Hamza Abdi.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The MLK Day programming begins with the annual MLK interfaith service, a prerecorded event that will be available for viewing by Sunday morning<\/a>, followed by a day of events on Monday, including:<\/p>\n\n\n\n