Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration Week

Your Voice, Your Vote

January 15-20, 2024

Melissa Harris-Perry

Melissa Harris-Perry, educator and author, will present the keynote address January 16 during Grand Valley's celebration of the life and legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 

Harris-Perry will give a presentation on Tuesday, January 16, at 10 a.m. in the Kirkhof Center, Grand River Room. The event is free and open to the public. It will also be offered virtually, a link to the Zoom webinar is pasted below.

She is also the keynote speaker for the 38th annual West Michigan community celebration, set for January 15, 6 p.m. at Fountain Street Church. That event is presented via a partnership among Grand Valley, Davenport University and Grand Rapids Community College. Click here to watch virtually.

Harris-Perry teaches and conducts research at Wake Forest University as the Maya Angelou Presidential Chair in the Department of Politics and International Affairs, the Department of Women and Gender Studies, the African American Studies Program, and the Program in Environment and Sustainability. She is the founder and president of the Anna Julia Cooper Center, whose mission is to advance justice through intersectional scholarship and action. She is the author of the award-winning books "Barbershops, Bibles, and BET: Everyday Talk and Black Political Thought," and "Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America."

Harris-Perry earned a bachelor's degree Wake Forest University and a doctoral degree in political science from Duke University. She studied theology at Union Theological Seminary in New York. Harris-Perry previously taught at the University of Chicago, Princeton University and Tulane University. 

Zoom webinar, Jan. 16 event:
https://gvsu-edu.zoom.us/j/91486189118
Webinar ID: 914 8618 9118

Melissa Harris-Perry portrait

Melissa Harris-Perry will give a presentation January 16, 10 a.m., in the Kirkhof Center.


EVENT CANCELED DUE TO WEATHER

This event has been canceled due to weather conditions.

GVSU graduate Dar Mayweather, '07 and '09, is the founder of an inclusive leadership consulting business, Doing the Good Work, and a leadership studies faculty member at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.

He will give a presentation to the campus community on Wednesday, January 17, at 4:30 p.m. in the Kirkhof Center, Grand River Room. This event follows the silent march, which will begin at 4 p.m. Both events are free and open to the public. Mayweather's presentation will also be offered virtually, a Zoom webinar link is pasted below.

Mayweather teaches leaders inclusion strategies that allow colleges and university stakeholders to close the gap between their intention and action. He earned a bachelor's degree in criminal justice and a master's degree in higher education administration from GVSU, and a MBA certificate and a doctoral degree in education from Eastern Michigan University. He has received the King Chavez Parks Future Faculty Fellow Award from the State of Michigan, the American College Personnel Association Pan African Network Sawubona Award, among other accolades.

Zoom webinar:
https://gvsu-edu.zoom.us/j/95769781168
Webinar ID: 957 6978 1168

Dar Mayweather seated outside at table in blue shirt

Dar Mayweather will give a presentation on January 17, 4:30 p.m., in the Kirkhof Center, Grand River Room.


TaRita Johnson

TaRita Johnson, senior vice president of Talent and Diversity at The Right Place in Grand Rapids, will weave together her story with the legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in a presentation sponsored jointly by the Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies and the Division of Inclusion and Equity.

Johnson's presentation will be Thursday, January 18, beginning at 5 p.m. at the DeVos Center, Loosemore Auditorium. Following the keynote, a reception will begin at 6 p.m. This event is free and open to the public. RSVPs are required. People attending virtually will be sent a Zoom webinar link after registering.

Prior to joining The Right Place in 2021, Johnson served as the director of the Career Center at Calvin University. She oversaw the center’s career coaching, employer relations, event and marketing analytics and assessment. She was responsible for cross-divisionally creating and launching a career and life skills program, Calvin LifeWork. 

Johnson served as a talent acquisition manager for corporate recruiting at Meijer. Prior to her work at Meijer, she was the vice president of College and University Relations at KeyBank, where she developed, executed and oversaw the bank’s college recruitment program for all lines of business. 

 

headshot of TaRita Johnson

TaRita Johnson will give a presentation on January 18, 5 p.m., in the DeVos Center.


Team Dream

Team Dream, the first documentary short from the 2022 Queen Collective program, was produced by Queen Latifah and directed and produced by Luchina Fisher.

The film will be screened followed by a panel discussion twice on January 18: 11:30 a.m. in the Kirkhof Center, Pere Marquette Room, and at 7 p.m. in the DeVos Center, Loosemore Auditorium (following TaRita Johnson's presentation and reception). 

Fisher’s film follows Ann Smith and Madeline Murphy Rabb, who are 82 and 77 years old, respectively, revealing that nothing — not age, not race and certainly not Chicago’s notorious weather — will stop them from training for the 2022 National Senior Games, where they will likely be the two of the few Black women competing in the swim events. "You are never too old to Dream." A decade after joining Team Dream, a Chicago-based organization training women of color in swimming, biking and triathlon, Smith and Rabb continue to reach goals they never thought possible.

Joining the panel discussion will be Ann Smith and Derrick Milligan, coach to Smith and Rabb. Milligan founded Team Dream, a triathlon training network for women of color. Panelists will discuss access to water and race, particularly during the morning panel discussion, 11:30 a.m. in the Kirkhof Center, Pere Marquette Room.

two older women in pool with goggles and swim caps on

There will be two Team Dream film screenings followed by panel discussions: January 18 at 11:30 a.m. (Kirkhof Center) and 7 p.m. (DeVos Center).


2023 Silent March

campus community members march on the Allendale campus reflecting on Dr. King's legacy; giving instructions at the start is Bobby Springer, co-chair of the planning committee








Page last modified January 17, 2024