This year’s Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Symposium keynote features two speakers, Gloria House, poet, essayist, educator and human rights activist, and Malik Yakini, co-founder and Executive Director of the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network. The 2021 Keynote Memorial Lecture begins on Monday, Jan. 18 at 10 a.m.

How do you think museums, libraries, and other cultural institutions should support local environmental justice movements?

“The voices of Black and Brown planners and our allies will shape the future of this country’s neighborhoods and the world. I intend to be a part of this change, no matter how much my anxiety tells me the time isn’t right or you don’t have all of the “right words” to bring clarity yet.”
~ Jermaine Ruffin

The first Semester in Detroit took place in Winter 2009 with 14 participants, partnering with organizations such as Alternatives for Girls, Detroit Eastside Community Collaborative, and the Urban League of Southeastern Michigan.

In this episode of Michigan Minds, Danyelle Reynolds, assistant director for student learning and leadership at the Ginsberg Center, discusses six ways that members of the community can exercise power…

“The other thing we want students to learn, and this is central to the work of the historian Tiya Miles, is that slavery is a part of the history of Detroit and Ontario. It’s not just this terrible thing that happened in the U.S. South. Their stories of survival and resistance are important, and we can learn from them and be inspired today, on both sides of the river.”
~ Darin Stockdill

LSA faculty representing a wide range of disciplines and expertise shared some of their recommendations for films on race and racism that are worth adding to your list.

“Watch Me Work is a celebration of Black Women who get it done! From the event planning Zoom mommy to the USPS mail lady, we work. The world watches and we work. The world turns away, we work. Even those of us who sit around all day and manage to make it to the next day safely, it took work. Through the daily attacks on the pigmented people of the world, we work. We work. We work. I work.”

~ Sydney G. James

“If I were talking to myself 20 years ago, I would say consider the needs of the community you are trying to serve, versus developing a product or service in a vacuum and then trying to sell people on your idea.”
~ Lisa Nuszkowski