10%

MLK Day 2023

This year's theme: "Art and Activism"

By Bates College

January 20^th, 2023

‘YOUR YES IS A WAY OF SPEAKING PURPOSE INTO EXISTENCE’

Bates photographers Phyllis Graber Jensen, Avery Lehman ’25, and Huck Triggs ’25, and multimedia producer Theophil Syslo portray moments from the college’s 2023 MLK Day observance. The campus community, joined by guests from near and far, explored the theme “Art and Activism.”

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

TELLING A DIFFERENT STORY

Marshall Hatch ’10 returned to Bates for a screening and discussion of the documentary All These Sons. The film follows Hatch, who leads the faith-based MAAFA project in Chicago’s West Garfield Park neighborhood, and a fellow community leader as they try to “shepherd young men away from Chicago’s gang life,” says reviewer Dwight Brown.

Interviewed after the screening by Mary Pols, the college’s media relations specialist who profiled Hatch for Bates Magazine, Hatch said that “we need to tell a different story” about the young Black men of Chicago.

He told the story of how, in summer 2014, a father and son, both named Samuel Walker, died by gunfire in the West Garfield Park neighborhood. “The son was killed one weekend and the father was killed the next weekend,” Hatch told the audience in Olin Arts Center.

The media quickly labeled both as being involved in gangs, which “set off a fire in me because it immediately dehumanized them,” said Hatch. “It justified the killings, in a way. It let the reader off the hook about society’s responsibility to each other. That’s the story I wanted to tell.”

The film “will take you into the truth,” Hatch said, “because it will allow these young men to speak for themselves about their conditions, about their neighborhood, about what they’re grappling with.”

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

“LIFT EVERY VOICE AND SING”

The annual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Interfaith Service, celebrating King’s life and legacy, presented uplifting student poetry, songs from local multifaith community members, and a dance message offered by Assistant Professor of Dance Brian J. Evans.

Bates’ 2023 Martin Luther King Jr. Day programming began with a contemplative, celebratory start, as community members gathered in the Peter J. Gomes Chapel for the Sunday evening Interfaith Service.

Multifaith Chaplain Brittany Longsdorf opened the service, followed by a performance of “Holy Spirit,” a contemporary worship song, sung by the Gospelaires. The congregation joined in singing, and then James Reese, the associate dean of students for international programs delivered a call to worship, and led a call-and-response inspired by King.

Rabbi Sruli Dresdner of Temple Shalom invited the Gospelaires to join him and his two children, who played violins, for a “Song of Lament,” a traditional Yiddish poem set to music, while he sang and played an accordion.

Sam Jean-Francois ’23 of Medford, Mass., performed a vigil reflection and led a moment of silence, before several students took turns reciting poems and performing songs in honor of King.

Brian J. Evans, an assistant professor of dance, performed a choreographed dance and spoken message, ending by asking the audience to call out the people who shine light into their lives. Longsdorf led a prayer, and the service ended with attendees singing “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” a hymn known as the Black national anthem.

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

THE KEYNOTE

MLK Day 2023

FILLING THE CHAPEL

Keith Hamilton Cobb, an actor and playwright who delivered the keynote address for Bates’ 2023 Martin Luther King Jr. Day observance on Monday, offered his audience one big takeaway: “Say ‘yes.’”

Saying “yes,” Cobb explained to the big gathering that filled Gomes Chapel, is to answer the question posed by the “voice of authority within” us — the voice that asks us to step forward and be present “wherever you are wanted.”

In other words, Cobb said, “your ‘yes’ is your way of speaking your purpose into existence.”

The first MLK Day keynote held in Gomes Chapel since 2018 (the historic chapel having been closed for renovations prior to the pandemic) opened with a student welcome from Sam Jean-Francois ’23, an Africana major from Medford, Mass., who placed this year’s theme, “Art and Activism,” into compelling and uplifting context.

“Black activism is innately beautiful, resting on the demand for humanity, the love for our differences, and the act of reconstituting life in the world that deems Black people dead at birth. Reflecting on this year of grief, loss, and radical resistance, we can think of no other way to enter this year’s discourse on racial justice than at the intersection of arts and activism.

“Activism is about community building, uplifting voices and radical love, and I invite all of you to build community with me today.”

President Clayton Spencer offered her welcome, noting how, on a Monday featuring rain, sleet, and snow, the day is both a time “for sensible footwear and for us to come together to embrace and extend the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.”

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

MOMENTS FROM MLK DAY 2023

Watch a video of highlights from the day produced by Theophil Syslo.

GRADING AND UNGRADING

Grading and “ungrading” were twin topics at two packed sessions on Monday. In the morning, Lindsey Hamilton ’05, director of the college’s Center for Inclusive Teaching and Learning, explained the myths and realities of grading. (Hint: grades don’t reflect learning).

In the afternoon, April Hill, the Wagener Family Professor of Equity and Inclusion in STEM, discussed the problematic history of grading in science and math fields, sharing research showing how teachers can unwittingly use grading as a racist tool.

For example, research shows that when a teacher with a fixed mindset about student ability — believing that students have an innate academic ability that “can’t be budged” — they give much lower grades to underrepresented students than to white or Asian students. The grade gap is much less pronounced when growth-mindset teachers, who believe that talent and ability can improve, grade their students.

“Probably all of us would say that we don’t believe in human hierarchy,” said Hill. “But there's a lot of data saying that a legacy of white supremacy plays out in our everyday work, and that includes grading.”

In the morning session, Hamilton took the temperature of the room with a few kickoff questions, including, “What’s the purpose of grades?”

Using the audience-response app Mentimeter, folks shared their answers, which popped up on the monitor behind Hamilton, including “incentivize students” and “measure understanding of a topic” and “let students know when they are on track.”

“Not that we shouldn’t assess learning — we absolutely should,” said Hamilton. “But I’m going to question whether grading achieves that.”

In fact, grading is an ineffective means of assessing learning, said Hamilton. Further, “decades and decades and decades of research collectively shows us that grades don’t actually work as incentives. We use them as a carrot or as a stick, but they don’t work.

“And grades are not good markers of learning and they’re not fair by any definition. And there’s a lot of research to support that.”

One approach to bridge the grade-learning disconnect is concept of “ungrading.” For the purpose of the relatively brief workshop, Hamilton quoted Jesse Stomel, a writing professor, who said that “ungrading means raising an eyebrow at the whole systemic process of grades. It’s not the same as not grading. It merely means, let’s think about it. Let’s look at it.”

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

‘WE, THE PEOPLE’

A third morning session, led by Assistant Professor of Dance Brian Evans, uses a community-driven arts framework to grapple with the first three words of the preamble to the U.S. Constitution: “We, the people.” The workshop, “Do, Process,” asks this question: “How do ‘we’ confront the implications that arise when one of the foundational documents of the United States of America does not equally protect all of its citizens, let alone those it deems illegal and foreign?”

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

LINGUISTIC JUSTICE

One mid-morning workshop, “Linguistic Justice,” led by Sam Jean-Francois ’23 of Medford, Mass., and Marisela Flores Pineda ’23 of Phoenix, delved into the effects of standardized language in schools, and what linguistic diversity and justice can do for students, whatever language they learn in.

Jean-Francois and Pineda designed the workshop to help Bates students and others who do community-engaged work better navigate the linguistic diversity in local schools, where nearly three dozen languages are spoken.

They spoke about the history of language diversity in Maine, and encouraged attendees to share their thoughts about what obstacles standardized language introduces to a classroom. After a lively discussion, participants did a poetry-writing exercise, while thinking about their “comfort language” and its presence in their lives.

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

BATES VOICES

Students and some staff and faculty gathered into the Fireplace Lounge in Commons for “Bates Voices: Honoring Martin Luther King Jr.,” which provided an opportunity for the Bates community to share music and words with each other in honor of King.

Senyo Ohene ’20 played the piano as people arrived and filled the chairs, and then James Reese, associate dean for international student programs, shared a message about the history of MLK Day at Bates, and what makes Bates Voices a special moment during the day’s programming: the act of sharing what inspires and moves you with the people around you, and the intent to contribute to the world outside Bates.

Bora Lagunda ’25 recited her original poem, “These Are the Colors of the Places We Call Home,” Elvira Ishimwe ’25, sang “If I Could Help Somebody,” and Jenna Dela Cruz Vendil, the associate director of democratic student engagement in the Harward Center, read a poem by American poet Amanda Gorman, “The Hill We Climb.”

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

A MOMENT OF REST

The goal of one afternoon workshop, “A Moment of Rest,” was to listen — really listen. Presenter and multidisciplinary artist James Allister Sprang met with community members in the Gannett Theater, where he introduced the concept of the “4-D sound system,” which aims to not only give the listener the sensation of being surrounded by a “sound bath” of audio, but also lend a physical quality to the audio itself.

Sprang then played an award-winning score of ambient, high-tech spiritual jazz and poetry, encouraging listeners to “turn inwards so they may be moved by what they find,” during the 45-minute aural meditation.

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

RECONSIDERING OTHELLO

During a workshop titled “Reconsidering Othello,” Bates’ 2023 MLK Day keynote speaker Keith Hamilton Cobb spoke to an audience in Commons 226 about how Shakespeare’s play has been held up as a goal to him throughout his career, as the quintessential Black role to portray, despite the character and story being a negative and harmful depiction of racial dynamics, and how the ongoing “Untitled Othello Project” is an attempt to “speak back” to the work and the institution of theater.

Cobb was joined by Katie Adkison, an assistant professor of English; David Sterling Brown, an assistant professor of English at Trinity College; Robert Manning Jr., an actor playing the role of Othello for the project; and Terrell Donnell Sledge, an actor playing the role of Montano.

Cobb invited the audience to ask questions and share observations about the play, the project, and their personal opinions about the story and characters, and the social implications of the play.

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

AN EMBARRASSMENT OF RICHES

We stopped by several other workshops. And we thought you might want to take a peek too. Included are “The Right to Live with One’s Parents vs. U.S. Immigration Policy of Family Separation,” led by Professor of Hispanic Studies Baltasar Fra-Molinero; “American Moor,” led by playwright, performer, and 2023 MLK keynote speaker Keith Hamilton Cobb; “A Little Devil in America,” led by Associate Professor of Music Dale Chapman; “Free Press and the History and Future of Social Justice Printmaking,” led by Elliott Vahey ’23 and Tyler Shambaugh ’23; and “BlackNESCAC,” led by Ellijah McLean ’20, Samah Mohamedzsein, and Sabrina Mohamed ’24.

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

THIS HOUSE BELIEVES

The verbal and intellectual acrobatics of the annual Rev. Dr. Benjamin Elijah Mays Debate brought together student debaters from Morehouse and Bates colleges. This year’s motion was: “This house believes that the targeting of iconic works of art to advance social justice is justified.

The Olin Arts Center was packed, and the audience was responsive.

The government side was presented by Manuel Machorro ’25 of Mexico City, a politics and philosophy double major, and Chijindum Dike, a sophomore at Morehouse College from Atlanta, double majoring in psychology and Chinese.

The opposition was presented by John Curry, a senior at Morehouse College from Nashville, majoring in philosophy, religion, and Chinese, and Andrew Montieth ’24 of Monroe, Wash., a philosophy major.

Machorro opened the debate with a quote from Martin Luther King Jr. “Dr. King said ‘if you can’t fly, then run, if you can’t run, then walk, if you can’t walk, then crawl, but by all means, keep moving.’ The claim that we’re gonna make from the government, is that when you’re not listened [to] by anyone, and when the government monopolizes power to destroy you, any way that you see fit is to some capacity justified in pursuing social justice.”

The debaters referenced recent events, such as when climate activists threw tomato soup at Vincent Van Gogh’s glass-covered “Sunflowers” and in turn argued that social justice is furthered by reclaiming spaces and public attention, and that some social activist action diverts attention away from the problem, and onto the targeted object.

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

SANKOFA

Finally, the Black Student Union’s annual cultural showcase, Sankofa, takes place Monday evening. Sankofa is a decade-long tradition at Bates inspired by the Akan word for “return” — embodying remembrance, memory, and community in its use. This year’s edition sought to “reflect Black grief, Black resistance, and most importantly Black joy through poems, dances, speeches, and songs,” said organizer Sam Jean-Francois ’23.

“All members of the greater Bates community are welcome to help us embody the beauty of Black joy, and hold this space of resistance with us.”

Lauren Reed ’23 of Baton Rouge, La., leaps through the air during a solo dance she performed as part of Sankofa, the final event of Bates’ 2023 Martin Luther King Jr. Day programming.

Every seat in Schaeffer Theatre was taken and the audience was buzzing with excitement as they waited for the curtains to rise on the final program of the day: Sankofa, a showcase of culture put on by the Black Student Union, features a wide variety of performances by students.

Sam Jean-Francois ’23 of Medford, Mass., delivered a few opening remarks, followed by a performance of “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” a hymn known as the Black national anthem, sung by Bates’ oldest all-gender Acapella group, the Crosstones, who invited the audience to rise and sing along.

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

MLK Day 2023

Footnotes

Produced by the Bates Communications Office with text by H. Jay Burns and Freddie Wright

FootNotes

Produced by the Bates Communications Office with text by H. Jay Burns and Freddie Wright

© 2026 Bates College

‘Frost and Furious’

Time again to celebrate the annual Winter Carnival

December and January at Bates

a little something from each month as we transition into the new year

This year's theme: Love, anger and the struggle for justice

November at Bates

first hints of winter, outdoor learning, and athletics and arts galore

October at Bates

physical beauty and warmth, joy and wonder, learning and competition

September 2025 at Bates

shared beginnings, the 150th anniversary of Bobcat football, and academic adventure

Story Told With

Start publishing stories like this

Loading, please hold on.