"Our Voting Rights: The Struggle Continues"
Presented by the Brookline MLK Celebration Committee
Watch the Live Premiere on
Monday, January 17, 2022 at 3pm
Please join together for Brookline’s celebration of the life and values of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at 1 pm Monday, January 17, 2021. This year, our event will be virtual and you can access the Premiere below or on BIG’s Community Cable Channel Brookline Comcast/RCN Channel 3.
YouTube Live Link: brooklineInteractive.org/live
Cable Channel: Brookline Comcast and RCN Channel 3
Program Rundown:
MLK Day is not only a recognition of Martin Luther King’s martyrdom in the struggle for racial equity but it is a reminder of how far we still have to go to achieve equality. This year’s program includes several different groups, each discussing issues of race and social justice from different perspectives. The quality of these sessions and their potential for enriching future Town discussions and understanding of these issues has led the Committee to extend the length of the program.
If you want to see parts of the program more than once or share some elements with family and friends, you can directly access each segment here after the live premiere concludes:
- Recording of “Lift Every Voice and Sing” (Gianna DiMarco) 3 minutes
- Bernard Greene Introduces Program (Welcome) 5 minutes
- MLK/RLA Video of Winners 7 minutes
- Rabbi Hamilton on MLK and Heschel History 5 minutes
- Bernard Greene Intro of Performers 3 minutes
- Jennifer Barber reading Mississippi Voter Rally – by Bruce Hartford 7 minutes
- Regie Gibson 10 minutes
- Bernard Greene Intro of Prof. Tsai 1 minute
- Prof. Robert Tsai; Keynote 25 minutes
- BCF PSA 3 minutes
- Bernard Greene Closing Remarks 5 minutes
- Credits 1 minute
“Our Voting Rights: The Struggle Continues”
This year’s program will feature Professor Robert L. Tsai as the Keynote Speaker. Robert L. Tsai is Professor of Law at Boston University and an expert in constitutional law and history. He is the author of three books, including Practical Equality: Forging Justice in a Divided Nation (Norton 2020). He has appeared on Meet the Press, Morning Joe, and ABC News and his essays can be found in New York Review of Books, Politico, Washington Post, and Boston Globe. We encourage you to read more about Professor Robert L. Tsai at http://roberttsai.com/bio/.
The program will also feature original poetry performance from Literary Performer and Author, Regie Gibson, and a poetry reading from Brookline Poet Laureate, Jennifer C. Barber, as well as a video compilation of Remote Learning Academy students reading their winning submissions of a collaborative contest held in March 2020.
Also featured will be music and inspirational words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr..
This event is free.
For more information or for any questions, please contact Caitlin Starr at cstarr@brooklinema.gov or 617-730-2345 or visit https://www.brooklinema.gov/
Inspo:Expo presents Engage! A Morning of Making a Difference with two hours of Zoom activism on MLK Day (1.17.21):
We see the “everyone is welcome here” yard signs. How does it play out in practice? Join Inspo:Expo and Welcome Blanket Brookline’s Hadassah Margolis in a conversation on the status of immigration in Brookline. Four panelists will share their own experiences as immigrants in Town, and guests Select Board Vice-Chair Raul Fernandez and Brookline Library’s Lily Weitzman will discuss local policies and grassroots activism to make our community open to all (the successes and the obstacles). Come learn how you can get involved.
Panelists:
- Suzette Abbot, from Apartheid South Africa
- Nour Alhusaini, from Syria
- Homa Sarabi-Daunais, from Iran
- Bishnu Tamang, from Nepal
Use the link here to register in advance and up to the start of the program: https://brooklinema.zoomgov.com/meeting/register/vJIsduitqjsuH4oOm5mJg_GiwYjB9LcICOI.
For more information, email Hadassah at inspoexpo.brookline@gmail.com.
Lift Every Voice and Sing
Song by J. Rosamond Johnson and James Weldon Johnson
Lift every voice and sing
Till earth and heaven ring
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise,
High as the list’ning skies, let it resound loud as the rolling sea
Sing a song full of faith that the dark past has taught us,
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us;
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,
Let us march on till victory is won.
Stony the road we trod,
Bitter the chast’ning rod,
Felt in the day that hope unborn had died;
Yet with a steady beat,
Have not our weary feet, come to the place on witch our fathers sighed?
We have come over a way that with tears has been watered,
We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered,
Out from the gloomy past, till now we stand at last
Where the white gleam of our star is cast. God of our weary years, God of our silent tears,
Thou who has brought us thus far on the way;
Thou who has by thy might,
Led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met thee,
Least our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, we forget thee,
Shadowed beneath the hand,
May we forever stand,
Tru to our God,
Tru to our native land
