Boggs highlights EMU's weeklong celebration of MLK

Eastern Michigan University faculty, staff and students explain "Why We Can't Wait," the theme of this year's Martin Luther King, Jr. Day celebration. The University's 21st annual celebration runs Jan. 11-17.

Keynote speaker Grace Lee Boggs will highlight the celebration.

Boggs

Boggs will present "This is the Time to Grow Our Souls" at the President's Luncheon, scheduled Monday, Jan. 15, 12:15-2 p.m. in the EMU Student Center Grand Ballroom. Tickets for the luncheon are $28 for faculty and staff, and $18 for students. Her keynote, which will draw on the essay, "Thinking Dialectically Toward Community," will be presented at 3 p.m. in Pease Auditorium. Admission to the keynote speech is free.

Boggs is an author, speaker and activist who has dedicated more than 60 years of her life to political involvement in some of the major social movements of this century, including labor, civil rights, black power, Asian American, women's and environmental justice.

Boggs, along with her husband ant others, founded Detroit Summer in 1992. Detroit Summer is a multi-racial, inter-generational collective, working to transform the community by confronting problems with creativity and critical thinking. Their current projects include organizing youth-led, media arts projects; communitywide potlucks, speak-outs and parties. Boggs is currently active with the group, as well as the Freedom Schoolers and the weekly Michigan Citizen.

"The 2007 MLK Day theme is 'Why We Can't Wait,' which is based on Dr. King's seminal work of the same name," said Jessica "Decky" Alexander, co-chair of the MLK Celebration Planning Committee. "This year's programming has both breadth and depth, and reflects what is going on in the EMU community and the world beyond."

In addition to the luncheon and keynote address, many events are scheduled leading up to MLK Day, and a few are scheduled in the days after.

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