MLK HOLIDAY / SPECIAL PROJECTS

The MLK Holiday/Special Projects program commemorates the federal holiday by honoring Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., celebrating his legacy and fostering a campus environment that embodies Dr. King’s inclusive dream for America. Additionally, the program manages special projects as assigned related to our committee purpose.

 

Annual Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Breakfast

This event serves as the university's observance of the federal holiday and is a way for the Texas A&M community to reflect on the life and legacy of Dr. King. We aim to provide a space for the audience to learn in depth how Dr. King's efforts are still thriving today, and how we can collectively continue his legacy through the future.

What Martin Luther King Jr. Said About Systemic Racism

Keynote Conversation with:

2023 featuring Ashley Dean ’23

2023 featuring JJ Torres ’24

 

SPECIAL PROJECTS

2023-24

Afro-Latinx Life in Writing (Spring 2024)

This event is a continuation of the Glasscock Center’s Afro-Latinx Life in Writing series that currently highlights poets of Afro-Latinx and Latinx descent. The one-day symposium will feature speakers from academic backgrounds as well as authors of the various poems featured and individuals who can speak to their experience with cultural identity. The event will focus on education around Afro-Latinx poets and safe spaces for discussion with all in attendance. There will be interactive aspects to this continuation of the series as well called the Poetry Booth open to any attendees.

Landscapes of Belonging: A Poetry Recital & Dinner (Fall 2023)

The Melbern G. Glasscock Center for Humanities Research along with co-sponsors MSC WBAC, Africana Studies, and the AVPA Arts Engagement Grant will host Landscapes of Belonging: A Poetry Recital & Dinner. We invite you to the recital (3-6 P.M. – Rudder Forum) and dinner (6-8 P.M – Rudder Exhibit Hall) to hear poetry from the Texas A&M community and visiting guest poets, Raina J. León and Janel Pineda. The recital & dinner are free to attend and open to all in our Bryan-College Station community.

2022-23
Juvenile In Justice: A Conversation about Confinement with Richard Ross

MSC WBAC and MSC VAC will partner to bring the work of Richard Ross to Texas A&M University.

Richard Ross is an artist/activist/photographer, distinguished research professor of art based in Santa Barbara, California. As the creator of Juvenile-in-Justice, his work turns a lens on the placement and treatment of American juveniles housed by law in facilities that treat, confine, punish, assist and, occasionally, harm them. Ross has been the recipient of grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, MacArthur and the Center for Cultural Innovation. Ross was awarded both Fulbright and Guggenheim Fellowships. Three books and traveling exhibitions of the work continue to see great success while Ross collaborates with juvenile justice stakeholders, using the images as a catalyst for change.

Ross’s work has been exhibited at the Tate Modern, London; National Building Museum, Washington D.C; Aperture Gallery, New York; ACME. Gallery, Los Angeles; and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco. He was the principal photographer for the Getty Conservation Institute and the Getty Museum on many of their architectural projects. He has photographed extensively for the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, SF Examiner, Vogue, COLORS, Time, Newsweek, Le Monde and many more. A dozen books of his work have been published including Girls in Justice 2015, Juvenile in Justice 2012, Architecture of Authority (Aperture 2007), Waiting for the End of the World (Princeton Architectural Press 2005), Gathering Light (University of New Mexico 2001) and Museology (Aperture 1988). Ross is a Distinguished Research Professor of Art at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he has taught since 1977.  Represented by Ronald Feldman Fine Arts in New York.

2020-22
MSC Stand Up Against Racism Initiative

Developed from President Michael Young’s email charge on June 11, 2020 that stated “the best way to reveal and stop the ugliness of racism is not to sweep it under the rug, but to shine a light on it, and to address it head on”.  The MSC Vice President of Diversity Education, along with representatives from MSC WBAC, MSC ALOT and MSC FISH, identified seven action items to address racial justice and equity with the goal of actualizing the Memorial Student Center’s commitment to “promote an inclusive culture through discussion and education, encouraging students to explore new perspectives”, and the MSC’s vision to “strive to be the leader in diversity efforts among the Division of Student Affairs through programming and the development of leaders in the pursuit of creating a diverse marketplace of ideas”.

These anti-racism actions will help create a welcoming, equitable, and inclusive space in which all students and staff involved in the MSC know they are safe, valued, and heard:

  1. Release an official statement recognizing the state of racial justice in America in light of the murder of George Floyd, garnering support from all MSC committees. Fulfilled. MSC WBAC released statement on June 12, 2020 with the support of all MSC committees receiving hundreds of shares and likes on social media.
  1. Require anti-racism training in addition to the Diversity Tier Training for all MSC committees and resource teams.
    Partially-Fulfilled. 9 of 17 committees completed at least one anti-racism training.
  2. Host an all-MSC event with the purpose of introducing this initiative and providing practical training and resources. Fulfilled. Hosted Reacting to Racism: Being Anti-Racist and the Justice System where 200+ former students, administrators, faculty, staff and students joined this important conversation.
  1. Facilitate comprehensive racial equity and anti-racism education. Fulfilled. MSC 21 Day Racial Equity & Social Justice Challenge that students and MSC staff participated in. 
  1. Provide monthly, open-forum discussion groups on racial equity, diversity, and inclusion, particularly as it manifests in the MSC and Texas A&M community. Fulfilled. Diversity Discourse groups were conducted monthly.
  1. Advocate for a Hate Speech Council working with SGA and other campus organizations. Not Fulfilled.  It was advised by Executive Team that this action item may be out of our scope of responsibility.  
  1. Implement a poster and social media campaign with anti-racism information to provide an immediate, visual impact in our community’s sense of inclusion and self. Fulfilled. A robust social media campaign was implemented with education slides.

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