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MLK Day 2024

This year's theme: Food Justice

By Bates College

January 19^th, 2024

“We all eat, right?” asked Bryant Terry, during his keynote address at this year’s Martin Luther King Jr. observance at Bates.

The question was rhetorical, of course, but his point clear. Food is a sine qua non of life, which means all of us have a relationship to the food we eat. And, by extension, food — its presence or absence — defines our relationship to our communities, large and small.

In myriad ways, large and small, the Bates community explored this year’s MLK Day theme of “Food Justice.”

MLK Day 2024

MLK Day 2024

MLK Day 2024

SETTING THE TONE WITH CINEMA

The Bates MLK Day workshops, discussions, and period of reflection on the idea of food justice kicked off Sunday afternoon in the Olin Arts Center with the film Gather, which follows the stories of Native Americans from three tribes who are on the frontlines of a growing movement to reconnect with spiritual and cultural identities that were devastated by genocide.

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BREAKING BREAD WITH THE PRESIDENT

President Garry W. Jenkins hosted a traditional dinner at his home to welcome the MLK Day keynote speaker Bryant Terry, the Morehouse College debaters and their coach who came for the Rev. Benjamin Elijah Mays Debate, as well as the Bates debating team and their coach. Also attending were members of the MLK Day planning committee. Jenkins was joined by his husband, Jon Lee, as the group enjoyed a meal prepared by Dining Services.

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'Food for the Soul'

On the evening of Jan. 14 in Gomes Chapel, the Multifaith Chaplaincy hosted an evening of spoken word called “Food for the Soul” that featured poets, artists, and musicians coming together to celebrate the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. With special guest Maya Williams, the poet laureate of Portland, Maine, the program included several students, staff, and faculty.

Caroline McCarthy ’26 of Hamden, Conn., read a poem inspired by Seamus Heaney’s “Digging” that spoke about her grandmother’s love and knowledge of flowers. Here is an excerpt:

My grandmother knew more flower species

Than any other on Shellbank Place.

Once I walked with her to the library

My shoes tied lazily loose. She knelt down

To tie them, then noticed just away

Violets and daffodils, quietly noting genera

Tracing with her finger, heading up and up

Towards the sweet pollen, searching.

Seniors Jakob Adler of Los Angeles, Aidan Richman of Portland, Maine, and Jeremy Brogan of Freeport, Maine, offered a musical prelude at the start and played music together throughout the program.

Joining McCarthy as presenters were Caroline McCarthy ’26 of Hamden, Conn., Ahmednoor Hassan ’27 of Portland, Maine, Bora Lugunda ’25 of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Assistant Professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies Ian-Khara Ellasante.

Multifaith Chaplain Brittany Longsdorf welcomed the crowd, then read a poem at the conclusion of the program. Associate Multifaith Chaplain Raymond Clothier introduced Williams.

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PRACTICE OF GENEROSITY

An artist, author, activist, and award-winning chef, Bryant Terry delivered the Bates MLK Day keynote address on Monday, tying together the fight for food justice today with Martin Luther King Jr.’s fight against systemic racism more than 60 years ago.

He described how he learned to love cooking from his grandparents in Memphis, Tenn., used their example of scratch baking and farming to teach him the ideals of “self-determination, practice of generosity, community care and the mutual aid to meet the immediate needs of neighbors and the wider community.”

These early life lessons also instilled in him a desire for healthier, sustainable food systems.

In welcoming those gathered, President Jenkins pointed out that King spoke against the stark inequalities in the American food systems and what King called the “abject, deadening poverty and superfluous, inordinate wealth.”

Associate Professor of Environmental Studies Tyler Harper, the MLK Day planning committee’s co-chair described King’s speech when he accepted the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize, noted the relevance of King’s message, that “even as our politics feel fraught and perhaps broken, we must not lose sight of the most basic political question of who has food and who does not.”

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LAND JUSTICE, ENERGY EQUITY, SCIENCE FICTION, AND A VIRTUAL RIDE

At the Bates VizLab in Coram Library, visitors experienced a 17-minute immersive virtual-reality video that gave participants the feeling of marching among 250,000 people during the March on Washington in 1963 and hearing King’s “I Have a Dream” speech.

The video also presented other unpleasant moments that highlighted systemic racism, such as the experience of being a Black man in the U.S. who is pulled over by a hostile police officer.

President Jenkins was the first to arrive at the lab. And after adjusting his virtual-reality headwear, Jenkins sat silently, while moving his hands, clenching his fist, moving his arms as he experienced King’s voice and the tour through Washington, D.C., historic protests, and the examples the immersive video presented, including the antagonistic officer — which was not a new experience for Jenkins, who grew up in New Jersey.

“Virtually every Black parent has had to carefully explain to their children, especially male children, how best to deal with the police in a routine traffic stop. While it hasn’t happened often, I remember being pulled over when I was young so the lessons of the video resonated and I wasn’t surprised by it,” Jenkins said in a calm, matter-of-fact way.

“Yet, this simulated experience is powerful because it gives people a sense of what’s at stake and enables them to, perhaps, view an otherwise everyday occurrence from a different perspective.”

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IT'S NOT 'JUST FLOUR"

“Just Flour,” a workshop that intertwined African American baking, environmental justice discussions, and hands-on bread making, was led by Phoebe Stern ’24 of Nashville, Tenn., and Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies Tyler Harper.

The small classroom and adjoining kitchen in Roger Williams Hall buzzed with a dozen students pounding dough, sharing stories, and joking during the four-hour workshop (bread making, as it turns out, takes a long time). But the purpose of the exercise went to the heart of food justice and the need for sharing communal meals with our neighbors, Stern said.

“When we have food, when we make food, it creates this community that we come together, we eat together, we talk together, we make it together,” Stern said.

Given the fact that Martin Luther King Jr. was such an advocate of labor rights and food rights, Harper said a bread-baking class is more than appropriate on the day that honors his legacy, because it raises the underlying question of who has bread and who does not.

“There’s something about cooking and baking that I think empowers students to go out in the world and feel like they can feed themselves and carve time out of their day to attend to something that isn't work or the television or TikTok,” Tyler said. “I would love to see in higher education, in general, food and cooking food being taken more seriously as both an art form and as something worthy of study.

HALAL, CLIMATE JUSTICE, AND WHAT EVEN IS 'ETHNIC FOOD?'

In the Keck Classroom in Pettengill, more than 80 students, faculty, staff, and members of the Lewiston community came together to hear from a panel about efforts in Portland, Maine, to create the first community-led pilot program in the country to bring certified halal school meals to nearly 30 schools.

Halal is food that is permitted in the Muslim religion and has been properly made, produced, processed, prepared, and stored using equipment that has been cleaned according to Islamic law. Khadija Ahmed of the Good Shepherd Food Bank said it’s near impossible to find halal food in Maine — which is a hardship for Muslim school children, particularly immigrants who already face some barriers in education.

“There are additives in the food; salads have chemicals. When you think of Muslim children they can’t find anything in the school cafeteria. Fruit is about it. We need to bring equity into our kitchens in schools,” Ahmed said. “The reality is we need to acknowledge that this group of people do exist and need help.”

Later in the afternoon, in a discussion titled “What Even Is ‘Ethnic’ Food?” seniors Maddie Lee of Providence, R.I., and Ruby Forde of Atlanta asked their audience to ponder the existence and significance of the “ethnic aisle” of the traditional U.S. grocery story.

During the session, the more than 50 attending were encouraged to share personal stories about food and their heritage or upbringing — and many did.

Lee, who has Korean ancestry, said Asian food is sadly often depicted as greasy, goopy, and full of salt, while her lived experience of Asian food is of fresh, healthy dishes full of vegetables. The depictions in American society, she said, “conceals all of the histories of these foods and the cultures that they come from.”

Andrew Goddard ’27 of Enfield, Conn., agreed food can make people from marginalized communities feel ostracized, but he reminded the group, food is also one of the few things that we share in common.

“At the same time, food brings people together. It's important to remember how much it can bring people together when people are respected in the proper way,” Goddard said.

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FOOD AND CULTURE

MLK Day keynote speaker Bryant Terry shared his passion for the intersection of food, culture, and politics in a mid-day Commons workshop. Supported by Dining Service chefs, Terry demonstrated how to prepare mashed squash, a citrus and garlic-herb braised fennel, and roasted cauliflower.

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MOREHOUSE-BATES: A COLLABORATION

This year’s Rev. Benjamin Elijah Mays Debate drew a packed house into Olin Arts Center Concert Hall late on Monday afternoon.

The four debaters served up lively speeches outlining their case, either opposing or affirming the resolution that illegal community farms are a just response to food deserts.

The affirmative was handled by Morehouse debater Jonathan Dolsey and Bates’ Ricky Huang ’24 of Shanghai, China, while Dalton Favors of Morehouse paired with Bates’ Tosca Neumann ’26 of Langenberg, Germany, to oppose the resolution.

The annual debate honors Mays, a 1920 Bates graduate, prominent debater, and longtime Morehouse president who became known as the “Schoolmaster of the Movement” for mentoring Martin Luther King Jr. and other leaders of the Civil Rights Movement.

The spirit of collaboration shows that “both schools are dedicated to honoring the legacy of Dr. Mays and his connection to both schools,” Rippetoe said. “Competitive debates, and public debates like this one, provide students an important opportunity to hone their skills as advocates so that they may take those skills back to their communities and make amazing changes, as Dr. Mays did.”

With President Garry W. Jenkins sitting in the front row with his husband, Jon Lee, the Morehouse debaters thanked Bates many times over for hosting their team — and for the dinner gathering Jenkins held at his home. Then both teams gave spirited speeches.

After an hour of polished and explosive arguments, Dolsey from Morehouse and Huang from Bates, who as a team were negating the resolution, won the debate.

Later in the evening in the Olin Arts Center, the Black Student Union took the stage to hold a panel of presenters who shared and discussed interesting differences among Bates students of the African diaspora, and then welcomed questions from the audience.

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Sankofa

This year, the program by the Black Student Union featured a panel whose presenters shared the annual foundational premise of Sankofa: highlighting and discussing interesting differences among students of the African diaspora.

Fiki Hunt '24 (center) of New York City, flanked by Leila Walker '24 of New York City and Fred Javier '27 of the Bronx, N.Y., speaks from the stage of the Olin Concert Hall during the Sankofa discussion.

Footnotes

Produced by Bates Communications and Marketing, with images and video by Bates multimedia producer Theophil Syslo and photographers Phyllis Graber Jensen, Carly Philpott ‘27, and Eno Little ’27 , and text and editing by Deirdre Stires and Jay Burns.

FootNotes

Produced by Bates Communications and Marketing, with images and video by Bates multimedia producer Theophil Syslo and photographers Phyllis Graber Jensen, Carly Philpott ‘27, and Eno Little ’27 , and text and editing by Deirdre Stires and Jay Burns.

© 2026 Bates College

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