NEWS
Students and faculty show appreciation for MLK this week
Valerie McMurray
vrmcmurr@unca.edu - Staff Wrifer
This week marks the seventh annual
Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration
Week hosted by UNC Asheville, as
students and faculty prepare a week of
recognition and remembrance.
Each year, students, faculty and staff
devote their time to recognizing the
civil rights leader’s feted birthday by
doing hands-on work in community-
oriented service projects coordinated
by the Adelaide Worth Daniels Key
Center for Community Citizenship and
Service-Learning.
The Key Center partners with the
Intercultural Center annually to host
MLK week. “Generated by Love: A
Legacy of Service” is this week’s theme
for 2014.
Among those committed to serving
community projects are 130 students
in 14 student organizations. The list of
projects includes Habitat for Humanity,
Cherokee Youth Garden, Asheville
Humane Society and the WNC Nature
Center.
“We have a lot of students who come
to this institution very interested in that.
I think that speaks to UNC Asheville’s
deep commitment to making sure that
our student body is civically engaged,
that they are providing quality service
and giving back to their communities,”
said Lamar Hylton, director of the
Intercultural Center, who said he has
seen student involvement grow during
the last three years.
“They tell us what they want to do,
which is fantastic,” he said. “We want
them to be leaders in their communities
when they leave here with their
degrees.”
Volunteers signed up beginning
last September by forming teams and
choosing a community project.
Students are involved in each part
of MLK Week planning, according
to Hylton, from ideas for volunteer
projects and campus events to poster
design.
When students heard UNCA will
bring nationally-recognized civil rights
activist and slam poet Marc Bamuthi
Joseph to deliver the keynote speech
on campus this year, they helped
the Multicultural Center develop
a workshop in which students will
produce spoken word poetry with social
justice themes.
Colette Reiser, who leads Rock(y)
the Mic Spoken Word Poetry, will
open the keynote speech for Joseph by
performing one of her own pieces.
“I’m humbled and honored to work
with him, of course,” said Heiser, a
senior at UNCA and a student employee
of the Multicultural Center
The first MLK event for the 2014
lineup was a screening of a documentary,
“Gideon’s Army,” presented by Dawn
Porter, a filmmaker, and Travis
Williams, a Georgia state public
defender who is featured in the film.
The screening took place in Lipinsky
Hall last Friday evening.
The film follows Williams and his
colleagues through poignant cases
in which their defendants face high
minimum mandatory sentences,
since under the current justice system
standard, there is more pressure on the
public defender to prove defendants
innocent than for the prosecution team
to prove them guilty, according to
Porter.
“The biggest injustices happening
throughout our country happen in
small courtrooms here in the South
and we gotta do what we can to change
that. This is the next phase of the civil
rights movement,” Williams said at the
screening.
Students said activism doesn’t end
after the designated day of service.
Jill Moffitt, assistant vice chancellor
for student life, led a lunch and leam
workshop called, “Social Justice:
What Does it Mean to You?” in the
Intercultural Center on Tuesday.
Wednesday’s highlight is a screening
of “American Promise,” a documentary
following two African-American boys
attending a prestigious, predominantly
white private school during the course
of 14 years. The film depicts their
successes and struggles as a social
experiment attempting to investigate the
relationship between race and private
schools. It will be held at 7 p.m. in
Alumni Hall.
Joseph, a National Poetry Slam
champion renowned not only for his
award-winning spoken-word poetry,
and activism work, but also writing and
directing hip-hop theatre and his early
ballet career, will speak on Thursday at
7 p.m. in Lipinsky Hall.
Students who want to learn the art
of spoken-word poetry can attend the
workshop at 8 p.m. on Friday in the
Highsmith Union Grotto.
Students give mixed reviews of dining renovations
Interested in hearing what others
have to say about the new renovations?
Visit The Blue Banner's website
(thebluebanner.net) to see staff writer
Brennen Hubbard’s video.
Q. . . -C l- Photos by Amanda Cline - Staff Photographer
udents wait in line to try the new restaurants and dining options in Highsmith Union.