Piedmont’s 27th annual Martin Luther King Day celebration Monday
By Lou Fancher
No one will be sleeping next week on Monday, when the joyful, exuberant voices of the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir’s Oakland Youth Chorus lift the hearts and spirits of the audience at Piedmont’s 27th annual Martin Luther King Day celebration, themed this year as “Remain Awake.” Held at Piedmont High School’s Alan Harvey Theater and presented by the Piedmont Anti-Racism and Diversity Committee (PADC) and the city of Piedmont, the program, in addition to the youth chorus (oigc.org/oyc), includes keynote speaker Dr. Amber Johnson, the assistant vice chancellor and chief of staff at UC Berkeley’s Division for Equity & Inclusion (diversity.berkeley.edu/people/amber-johnson-phd); Corrina Gould, of the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust (sogoreate-landtrust.org/staff-board); and Piedmont Mayor Jen Cavenaugh (bit.ly/3vwcmZi). The event (padc.info/mlkday) will also serve to highlight the creative expression and future dreams of area students in kindergarten through 12th grade who have contributed art and writing to the PADC’s third annual Art & Essay Showcase. “In collaboration with the city of Piedmont, the PADC has hosted this annual celebration for the past 27 years as an opportunity to celebrate the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his legacy,” said David Gard, the PADC’s executive board member and one of the event’s organizers. “Often Dr. King’s many sermons and speeches are distilled into superficial sound bites, diluting his more impactful messages of anti-racism and activism that call for substantive change. “Our hope with this celebration is that it provides a space to gather as a broader community — both for the city of Piedmont and the surrounding Bay Area — and to re-engage with Dr. King’s message. We also see this annual event as a celebration of Dr. King’s life, so we’ve always included performers of various types at this event.” Every year, current and former PADC board members are asked to read King’s writings and develop themes that align with current events. For this year’s celebration, current board member Richard Turner and former board member and Piedmont city Councilmember Jen Long selected the theme of “Remain Awake” to emphasize avoiding complacency and choosing deliberate and active advocacy to continue steps toward greater equity and justice locally and in society at large. The theme was inspired by a speech King delivered March 31, 1968, just days before his assassination on April 4 of that year. It was his final sermon at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., where King spoke about what he considered to be the three evils of racism, poverty and militarism. He commented that “one of the great liabilities of life is that all too many people find themselves living amid a great period of social change and yet they fail to develop the new attitudes, the new mental responses that the new situation demands.” Moments later he issued this challenge: “Let us stand up. Let us be a concerned generation. Let us remain awake through a great revolution.” PADC President Ellen Lee said in response to a question about the theme’s relevance that “There are many factors that make this theme highly relevant. To name a few, the upcoming presidential election, ongoing threats to democracy, book bans and attempts to dismantle DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) initiatives … all of these are important reasons we need to ‘remain awake’ as a community. “Dr. King’s speech reminds us the fight for equity is far from over. We cannot be complacent. We need to stay vigilant and aware of what’s happening around us. We need to continue to care about our community — to make sure everyone feels included.” The PADC works to align its mission with King’s words by attempting to dismantle systems of oppression and replace them with transparent policies, practices and collaborations that nurture, educate, challenge and support more connected, inclusive communities. From it’s earliest days, the PADC has sought to showcase children and youth in Piedmont who are the next generation’s “keepers of the dream” for greater social justice. “The PADC as an organization started more than 20 years ago as a parent group and with students in mind,” Lee said. “We’re inspired and impressed by the young people in our community. They are the ones who are speaking up, bringing issues to our attention and calling for change.” A recent presentation, “The History of Piedmont: Racism and Redlining,” was conceived, researched and created by Piedmont High School (PHS) students last year. More than 150 people attended the interactive program organized by student leaders Hailey Marshburn, Phoenix Nwokedi, Dahlia Saffouri, Valentina Prieto-Black, Jack Cramer and other PHS students. The event had dozens of students quizzing the audience on their awareness of historic racist incidents and practices in Piedmont and elsewhere and discussing how redlining (refusing to offer home loans or insurance on a discriminatory basis in certain neighborhoods) had designed and defined the streets, business regions and residential neighborhoods of many cities. “They recognized the importance of sharing the history of redlining, its impact on Piedmont and the experience of the Dearing family (in the 1920s) with their fellow students,” said Lee. “The PADC was excited to help them bring it to the wider Piedmont community this fall. It is one of many examples of how our students are leading the way and showing us what can and should be done.” Another event organized by the Piedmont Education Foundation, Piedmont Racial Equity Campaign and the PADC may have brought the students’ work to a larger stage. “We recently co-hosted author Dashka Slater, author of the new book “Accountable,” who was joined on stage by two PHS students, Valentina Prieto-Black and Hailey Marshburn,” Lee said. “Dashka mentioned her appearance in a recent op-ed for The New York Times.” Gard expressed his and Lee’s excitement in anticipation of this year’s celebration. “Last year’s MLK event was the first time we met in person after a three-year hiatus (when we met online) because of COVID-19. We filled the Alan Harvey Theater at this event and plan to do so again this year.” In his words can be heard the precursor to the jubilant singing of the Oakland Youth Chorus that will surely have the audience lifting their voices in unison to honor and continue the work King began. |