Martin Luther King Jr. Day has been celebrated at Fort Lewis College since the 1980s, and Monday will be filled with opportunities for the public to take part in a number of exercises and workshops that honor the icon of social justice while examining current and regional issues as well.
Nancy Stoffer, coordinator for diversity programming at FLC, said Martin Luther King Jr. Day is about celebrating community.
“A day to be thinking about what gifts we can give to our communities, “she said.
The day commences at 12:10 p.m. with a march from Center of Southwest Studies toward the Student Union. At 12:30, two songs presented by the FLC choir will be a fitting accompaniment to the theme of the holiday.
A rally with an open-mic format will be held. People will be asked for their responses to the question: What are you doing, or what would you like to be doing in the fight for social justice?
After the rally, seven workshops – all running concurrently, part of a Social Justice Festival – will be held from 3:15 to 4:15 p.m. and again from 4:15 to 5:15 p.m.
“This is a way to put some tools into the social-justice toolbox,” Stoffer said. “For our students and our community.”
Starting at 6 p.m., a film on the Black Mesa Coal Mine, “Broken Rainbow,” will be screened in Room 130 in Noble Hall. The film documents the relocation of 10,000 Navajo tribal members to secure and extract natural resources in Arizona. It also examines the legal strategies used by the Peabody Coal Company (now Peabody Energy) – the largest private coal company in the world – in negotiations with both tribal and nontribal parties. Black Mesa Coal Mine has long been opposed by many social and environmental activists.
Keynote speakers Fern Benally and Danny Blackgoat, son of former Black Mesa Coal Mine opponent Roberta Blackgoat, will host a forum after the presentation.
Stoffer called it a time to help our neighbors.
“Dr. King, if he were here, I think what he would want us to do is become aware and equipped in the fight for social justice,” Stoffer said. “For all people, and for the Earth.”
bmathis@durangoherald.com
