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Dustin Luca
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SALEM, MASS. – This year’s Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Convocation at Salem State University will explore what the civil rights icon’s life and lessons mean in the year 2025.
The 35th running of Convocation will also return the event to the campus community in 2025, with this year’s keynote being delivered by Salem State history professor Jamie Wilson and student voices featured heavily throughout. The program also includes a panel discussion led by members of Bold, Educated, Empowered Sisters (BEES) and The Brotherhood, two student groups dedicated to promoting the academic, personal, and professional success of Black and Brown women and men on campus respectively.
“In previous years, we’ve brought outside speakers or guests to serve as the convocation keynote speaker, but this year, we really wanted to amplify the voices of students, faculty, staff, and members of our community,” said Carlie Pierre, director of education and training in the inclusive excellence office. “We’re excited to have professor Jamie Wilson serve as our keynote speaker this year. His research and work is centered around Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., his legacy, his life, and his relevance to American history.”
Wilson, in addition to teaching courses ranging from Black history to the history of race and ethnicity, recently authored a biography on King, titled Martin Luther King, Jr.: A Life in American History. His hope is to focus on what makes King relevant today, rather than take the more common approach to discussing King: leaning on his most famous words.
“What I’m trying to do is have us think about the relevance of King beyond the soundbites we all love,” Wilson said, then beginning to recite King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech. “I’ve seen school-aged children, elementary school children, recite that whole speech. This time, let’s take him off that pedestal and put him in our daily lives.”
Wilson’s keynote address will be followed by an interactive community conversation led by The Brotherhood and BEES. Organization presidents Terrence Jean Charles (The Brotherhood) and Araby’ha M. Rankin (BEES) will co-emcee the discussion.
The overall theme of this year’s event, led by the King Center, is Mission Possible: Protecting Freedom, Justice, and Democracy in the Spirit of Nonviolence365, an online training platform dealing with conflict and dismantling injustice.
Convocation will also announce the winners of the annual MLK Essay Contest. Cosponsored by Salem State’s Center for Justice and Liberation and the Salem Human Rights Coalition, the contest is open to all Salem public schools elementary, middle, and high school students, asking them to write a one-page essay tying into this year’s theme. Submissions were due in mid-December.
Convocation is free and open to the public, with no RSVP necessary. It will be held in the Sophia Gordon Center, 352 Lafayette St., at 11 am on Monday, Jan. 27. For more, visit the Celebration’s event page.