Celebrating Art & Culture on the 40th Anniversary of the launch of the Poor People's Campaign

Participants at the December 10th Art and Culture event are led in song by Derrick McQueen.
Photograph by Katy Moore.

Forty years ago the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. announced The Poor People’s Campaign.  He told America that thousands of poor folks of all colors and races would march to Washington, D.C. to demand justice for America’s crime of poverty.

“We will go there, we will demand to be heard, and we will stay until America responds. If this means forcible repression of our movement we will confront it, for we have done this before. In short, we will be petitioning our government for specific reforms and we intend to build militant nonviolent actions until that government moves against poverty. It must not be just black people, it must be all poor people. We must include American Indians, Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, and even poor whites.”--Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Press Conference Dec. 4, 1967 Announcing the Poor People’s Campaign

Students and alumni performed a dance reflection on Hurricane Katrina to Stevie Nicks' "I Need Someone to Stand By Me".
Choreographed by Charon Hribar.
Photograph by Katy Moore.

On December 10 students, faculty, trustees, alumni and community members came together for an evening of song, dance, theater, stepping, images and reflection. We celebrated the contribution of art and culture in the building of social movements, particularly the songs that kept people marching while the dogs were chasing, marching while the hoses were turned on people, marching against injustice.

Anu Yadav performed excerpts from interviews with veterans of the Civil Rights Movement.
Photograph by Katy Moore.

On that night we celebrated women like Bernice Johnson Reagon who sang the songs of the Civil Right’s Movement and who said, “It doesn't matter to me if you write song lyrics, poetry, or prose -- if you are concerned about what's happening in your world, and especially if you take issue with it, songs, poetry and short stories are very important ways to express what you are feeling. And don't forget visual arts, and dance.”--Bernice Johnson Reagon

Artist, author and long-time leader in the movement to end poverty, Ron Cassanova spoke about the importance of the arts in building and sustaining social movements.
Photograph by Katy Moore.

Songs have been at the forefront of many struggles in this country.  They are stories about life, visions of a better world of today and tomorrow.  This art gives us the courage to stand up and say who we are and where we come from. Throughout the world and throughout the history of social movments, art and culture have played critical roles in struggles for justice.

Audience members join in singing freedom songs.
Photograph by Katy Moore.