GRANVILLE - Denison University will mark Martin Luther King Jr. Day with a chapel service on Sunday (Jan. 19) and a community luncheon on Monday (Jan. 20). The theme for the third annual community-wide commemoration of King's birthday at Denison is "The Courage to Question." Both the service and the luncheon are open to the public free of charge.

Following the luncheon program, a MLK Community Quilt will be unveiled. Individuals and groups of co-workers and students have created squares for the quilt which planners hope will be a tangible reminder of King's words taken from a letter written in a Birmingham jail in 1963 -- "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny."

Albert Paul Brinson

Denison student members of the Black Student Union and the Denison Community Association plan to work with student visitors from Newark's Par Excellence School during the day. Under the sponsorship of the Alford Center for Service Learning, they are planning a number of art, video, and play projects as well as discussion groups designed to highlight Martin Luther King Jr.'s works and Life. Par Excellence students have been invited to join in these activities with the Denison students from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. in the Slayter Union and will culminate the day with a pizza party there.

Albert Paul Brinson will be the guest speaker at the chapel service, set for 6:30 to 8 p.m. on Sunday in Swasey Chapel. The Denison University Gospel Choir under the direction of Raymond Wise will also perform at the service.

Currently serving as the interim associate general secretary for world mission support with the American Baptist Churches USA, Brinson was licensed and ordained at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta by co-pastors Martin Luther King Sr. and Martin Luther King Jr.. He previously served as pastor at Antioch Baptist Church, Corona, N.Y., and at the Bank Street Memorial Baptist Church, Norfolk, Va.

Brinson has served as a major fundraiser and bridge builder among multi-ethnic congregations in the American Baptist denomination. He also has been responsible for training new ministers in the World Mission Support area, and served as affirmative action officer and as a member of the staff advisory group to the Biennial Program Committee.

Evelyn Hu-DeHart

Evelyn Hu-DeHart will be the featured speaker at the community luncheon on Monday (Jan. 20) in the Mitchell Center. University offices will be closed between 11:15 a.m. and 3 p.m. to allow all Denison students, faculty and staff to attend the luncheon program. Hu-DeHart is professor of history and director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America at Brown University. She has taught previously at the University of Colorado Boulder, City University of New York, New York University, Washington University in St. Louis, and the University of Michigan. Author of three books on the Yaqui tribe of American Indians in New Mexico and Arizona, Hu-DeHart also has done research on the Asian diaspora in Latin America and the Caribbean. She is published in English, Chinese, Spanish and Zoque Mayan.

Hu-DeHart has spoken at more than 50 campuses and institutions in the past five years including the Smithsonian, the American Museum of Natural History and the Asian Society. She has appeared on the McNeil-Lehrer News Hour and is the founder of the Asian/Pacific American Women's Leadership Institute. Hu-DeHart earned her bachelor's degree at Stanford University and her doctorate in Latin American history at the University of Texas at Austin. She is the recipient of two Fulbright awards (to Brazil and Peru) as well as a three-year Kellogg National Leadership Award.

For press inquiries:

Name

Barbara Stambaugh

Position Title

Director, Media Relations

Primary Email

stambaughb@denison.edu

Business Phone

(740) 587-8575