2009 Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebratory Events
One in 100: Dismantling a Prison Nation
Special Commemorative Address from Angela Davis, UCLA professor, scholar, and author of several books including: "Are Prison's Obsolete?", "Abolition Democracy: Beyond Empire, Prisons and Torture"
The University of New Hampshire is pleased to present its 2009 MLK Celebratory events commemorating the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The week of activities entitled, One in 100: Dismantling a Prison Nation in the United States, focuses on King's struggle to create a beloved community where social, political, and economic justice are more the norm than the exception. Five major events will take place from January 22 – 29, 2009. These intellectually provocative speakers, panelists, musicians and essayists will challenge us to question the steady growth of a prison system where human rights and civil liberties are neglected.
Through productive conversations, attendees will examine the social, economic and political injustices that have contributed to the building of America’s prison industrial complex, a system that has more than one in every 100 adults confined behind bars, and be called to actively participate in growing a productive, self-respecting citizenry. Powerfully provocative civil rights educational programs will be offered in a welcoming learning community that promotes diversity of perspectives, experiences and cultures.
In sum, the Annual MLK Celebration is demonstrative of the University’s goal to cultivate an inclusive learning community of mutual respect and a shared spirit of inquiry.
OTHER EVENTS PLANNED:
Photo Art Exhibit: Thursday, January 22, 2009; 6:00 pm; MUB Strafford Room
Spiritual Celebration: Sunday, January 25, 2009; 4:00 pm; St George’s Episcopal Church,
downtown Durham
UNH Celebrity Series Concert: Sweet Honey in the Rock, Monday, January 26, 2009, 7:00 pm; PCAC Johnson Theatre. The Grammy award winning cappalla vocal group will perform a variety of music including blues, spirituals, gospel, reggae, African chants, hip-hop, ancient lullabies and jazz. For more information
Sweet Honey in the Rock
Educational Panel/Student Debate: Tuesday, January 27; 12:30-2:00 pm; Strafford Room, MUB
Conversation with Angela Davis: Thursday, January 29; 12:30-2:00pm
Commemorative Address: Thursday, January 29, 7:00-8:30 pm; PCAC Johnson Theatre at UNH
More on Angela Davis . . .
Through her activism and her scholarship over the last decades, Angela Davis has been deeply involved in our nation's quest for social justice. Her work as an educator - both at the university level and in the larger public sphere - has always emphasized the importance of building communities of struggle for economic, racial, and gender equality.
Professor Davis' teaching career has taken her to San Francisco State University, Mills College, and UC Berkeley. She has also taught at UCLA, Vassar, the Claremont Colleges, and Stanford University. She has spent the last fifteen years at the University of California Santa Cruz where she is a Professor of History of Consciousness, an interdisciplinary Ph.D. program, and Professor of Feminist Studies.
Angela Davis is the author of eight books and has lectured throughout the United States as well as in Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, and South Africa. In recent years a persistent theme of her work has been the range of social problems associated with incarceration and the generalized criminalization of those communities that are most affected by poverty and racial discrimination. She draws upon her own experiences in the early seventies as a person who spent eighteen months in jail and on trial, after being placed on the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted List". She has also conducted extensive research on numerous issues related to race, gender and imprisonment. Her most recent books are Abolition Democracy and Are Prisons Obsolete? She is now completing a book on Prisons and American History.
Angela Davis is a member of the executive board of the Women of Color Resource Center, a San Francisco Bay area organization that emphasizes popular education - of and about women who live in conditions of poverty. She also works with Justice Now, which provides legal assistance to women in prison and engages in advocacy for the abolition of imprisonment as the dominant strategy for addressing social problems. Internationally, she is affiliated with Sisters Inside, a similar organization based in Queensland, Australia.
Like many other educators, Professor Davis is especially concerned with the general tendency to devote more resources and attention to the prison system than to educational institutions. Having helped to popularize the notion of a "prison industrial complex", she now urges her audience to think seriously about the future possibility of a world without prisons and to help forge a 21st century abolitionist movement.
