Remember This House

This is my first blog entry of 2019, and as is customary for me most years, I am usually fairly silent during the first few weeks of any new year. I have been busy with other things and on other social media, but somehow this first long weekend in January, when we remember and celebrate the life of Martin Luther King, Jr., it seems fitting to break the bloggy new year ‘s fast and put some thoughts to screen.

As many of you may know, MLK, Jr. figures prominently in my own notions of social justice. In my second year as a VISTA (Volunteer In Service to America) I, along with a group of other local VISTAs, spent our entire year dissecting institutional racism – what it was, how it manifested itself in our respective work sites as well as our everyday lives, and what we might do about it. King featured prominently in the supporting works I read, as well as my taking note of his own thought evolution on social justice. Along with a handful of undergraduate courses, that year-long inquiry, more than a decade ago, stays with me to this day. I still feed off the lightening-bolt moments I had as a result of an off-comment here, a well-placed paragraph there, as well as the memories of intense conversations we had as a group.

While my days of direct service are all-but over, my willingness to continue to dig deeper into the entire history of this country remains strong, and this weekend is always a personal reminder that I still have much to learn. In that vein, I highly encourage each of you to find and watch Raoul Peck’s excellent I Am Not Your Negro, his 2016 ode to James Baldwin, via one of his unfinished works, Remember This House. Using (as Baldwin was intending) the deaths of Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and MLK, Jr. as a thematic link and backdrop, Peck masterfully brings to life Baldwin’s unfinished last work. Through it, Peck also (as he admits in an interview included as a video extra) keeps Baldwin alive through the current medium of choice – video and cinema. It is, of course, a meta nod to Baldwin’s final written material, as the writer was attempting to do the same (as well as so much more) with the examination of the referenced deaths.

Undoubtedly, this 2016 documentary also makes a singularly powerful statement on the current issue of race in today’s America. Using archival footage of Baldwin’s own speeches and talks (he died in 1987), it shows how far we’ve come as a nation, and yet how easy it has been to fall back. There is, also, a 1969 Dick Cavett show exchange between a white professor and Baldwin that is not, absolutely not, to be forgotten. Talk about not missing his shot.

There is so much more to say – both of Baldwin and King. However, it would be just my thoughts and impressions, and that is not what I want to convey. Read any King writing this weekend; watch this masterful documentary based on and inspired by Baldwin, himself a slave’s grandson. Determine how best you might be as light a societal presence as possible, and then live it every day. That is a legacy King (and Baldwin, I expect) would encourage.

It Is Again Another New Year

"True peace is not merely the absence of tension: it is the presence of
justice."  Quoted in Let the Trumpet Sound : A Life of Martin Luther
King, Jr (1982) by Stephen B. Oates

The beginning of every year is usually a time of contemplation for me, so it doesn't feel all that late that my first post of 2017 comes two weeks into January. This is also a holiday weekend in the United States, when we mark the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. What does amaze me is that I have only managed to previously mark this date only once here on the blog. I have been a U.S. VISTA member (twice), and for all CNCS members (Corporation for National and Community Service, which incorporates all of the various U.S. service programs, including Americorps) this weekend is a fairly big deal. During my last VISTA year I participated in a community service project on the actual holiday that was different from the site at which I was stationed. I remember it being not only personally fulfilling, but generally a lot of fun, as I was alongside all of my VISTA mates as well as other active members of the CNCS community in my area. Many past presidents, as well as policy wonks and other pundits, have each advocated for some sort of term of public service for all Americans, whether volunteer or mandatory (gasp!), as a way to create a common cultural experience. As someone who has voluntarily given up almost two years of my adult life in just such pursuit, I can wholeheartedly speak to the cultural learning curve involved and the cultural understanding gained since, in many instances, volunteers serve in communities removed from where they grew up or lived at time of enrollment. It is a difficult financial challenge (especially for someone of modest means), but the rewards are many. 

Of course, I came to MLK, Jr. initially through his writings and speeches. No student of literature and liberal arts can escape reading the "I Have a Dream" speech. During my instructor stint in the classroom, I taught the speech both from the page as well as the screen. (NB: For an absolutely amazing treatment of the speech, check out Ho Che Anderson's graphic rendition, written about rather extensively here, which includes some of the comic graphics). King's Letter From Birmingham Jail is a primer on non-violent protest (as well as a slice of political history). I can hear King's voice and cadence when I read many of his writings; he was that powerful an orator. 

I cannot help but be inspired by MLK, Jr.'s ultimate message of hope.