Shenandoah Holds Weeklong Celebration of Martin Luther King Jr.
Event offers performances, dialogue and service opportunities
Shenandoah University is celebrating civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. with a weeklong slate of events meant to encourage reflection, service and dialogue.
Martin Luther King Jr. Week at Shenandoah will be held from Monday, Jan. 21, through Friday, Jan. 25, both on campus and around Winchester. Events are free and open to the public. Registration may be required for certain events.
MLK week at Shenandoah is all about coming together to honor Dr. King’s legacy and taking the time to reflect and talk about how we can be better and do better, both as individuals and as a community.”
Amy Sarch, Ph.D. | Associate Provost & the organizer of MLK Week
On the first day of the weeklong celebration, the African-American female barbershop quartet Halo will use barbershop singing to guide dialogue on issues of racism in the United States.
There will also be a performance by the Harambee Gospel Choir, along with a Martin Luther King, Jr. Service of Remembrance, both in Goodson Chapel. The remembrance service will feature theologian and author Drew Hart and actor Roman Banks, a Shenandoah student who was the first African American to play the lead role in the Broadway musical “Dear Evan Hansen.” A dinner with both Hart and Banks will follow the remembrance service in Allen Dining Hall. Registration is required for the dinner.
From noon to 5 p.m. on Jan. 21, attendees will also get the chance to witness the trial of abolitionist John Brown by donning a virtual reality headset in the Brandt Student Center. Brown’s raid in Harpers Ferry led to his trial and hanging in 1859. The project was created by the Shenandoah Center for Immersive Learning (SCiL) in coordination with Shenandoah’s McCormick Civil War Institute and the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation. An introduction of the trial will be given by Jonathan Noyalas ’01, M.A., director of the McCormick Civil War Institute, who will explain the significance of this trial and provide insight into the making of the virtual reality experience.
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Also during the week, there will be a presentation by Dr. Ysaÿe Barnwell — most well known for her 34 years with the acclaimed female African American a capella group Sweet Honey in the Rock — who will remember King through reflection and song; a talk by Shenandoah Professor of Business Law John Winn, J.D., called “Ending American Apartheid: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Heart of Dixie Motel;” and a visit from Charles R. Smith, Jr., a children’s author and slam poet whose work has earned the Coretta Scott King award.
Numerous service opportunities will also be available, including projects at:
- Blue Ridge Hospice
- NW Works
- Our Health
- United Way
- Blue Ridge Habitat for Humanity
- Handley Library
- F.R.E.E. of Northern Shenandoah Valley
- Cleanup project in Middletown with Mayor Charles Harbaugh IV, ’09,’11
- There will also be a Rise Against Hunger meal-packaging event in Shingleton Hall on campus.
Everyone is welcome to join!
Martin Luther King Jr. Week Schedule
Monday
United Way Materials Packaging
9:00-11:30 am
Our Health Building
Daniel Morgan Intermediate School Beautification Service Project
9 am-12 pm
Downtown Winchester
John Kerr Elementary School Beautification Service Project
9 am-12 pm
Winchester
Handley Library Service Projects
10:30-2:30
Handley Regional Library
“Igniting the Fuse: John Brown’s Trial” Virtual Reality Experience
12-5 pm
Brandt Student Center, Ferrari Room
Rise Against Hunger
1-3 pm
Shingleton Gymnasium
Garland R. Quarels School Beautification Service Project
1-4 pm
Downtown Winchester
HALO Barbershop Quartet and Discussion
3-5 pm
Goodson Chapel
Harambee Gospel Choir
5-5:30 pm
Goodson Chapel
Martin Luther King, Jr. Service of Remembrance featuring Roman Banks and Drew Hart
5:30-6:30 pm
Goodson Chapel
Dinner with Roman Banks and Drew Hart
6:30-8 pm
Allen Dining Hall
Project Linus
January 21-25
ICPH Fairfax Campus
Tuesday
Blue Ridge Habitat for Humanity Service Projects
8:30 am-2 pm
Blue Ridge Habitat for Humanity Headquarters
F.R.E.E. of Northern Shenandoah Valley Service Project
9 am-1 pm
The F.R.E.E. Foundation
The Ball Pit: Have Ballsy Conversations
9 am-8 pm
Brandt Student Center
Ending American Apartheid: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Heart of Dixie Motel
7:00 – 8:00 pm
Hester Auditorium
“Diversity Makes Us Better”Athletics Workshop
7-9 pm
Brandt Student Center, Ferrari Room
Project Linus
January 21-25
ICPH Fairfax Campus
Wednesday
Our Health Service Project
9 am-12 pm
Downtown Winchester
NW Works Service Project
9 am-12 pm
NW Works Headquarters
Words in action, bodies in motion, songs in flight, with Dr. Ysaye Barnwell
3-3:50 pm
Armstrong Concert Hall
“A Joyous Daybreak”: MLK, Civil Rights & Emancipation’s Centennial
7-8 pm
Halpin-Harrison Hall, Stimpson Auditorium
Project Linus
January 21-25
ICPH Fairfax Campus
Thursday
F.R.E.E. of Northern Shenandoah Valley Service Project
9 am-1 pm
The F.R.E.E. Foundation
Coffee for the Greater Good with Manyang Kher, one of the Lost Boys of Sudan
11 am-12:15 pm
Halpin-Harrison Hall, Stimpson Auditorium
Blue Ridge Hospice Service Project
12-4 pm
Blue Ridge Hospice
Dinner Dialogue: Choosing to Forget: Race & Commemoration of African Americans’ Civil War Service
6-8 pm
Macado’s
Campus Kitchens Meal Packaging
7-8 pm
Project Linus
January 21-25
ICPH Fairfax Campus
Friday
Children’s Author and Slam Poet, Charles R. Smith, Jr.
9-11 am
Shingleton Gym
Town of Middletown Service Project
Middletown, VA
Project Linus
January 21-25
ICPH Fairfax Campus
