What is Your Story? Events to Celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr.

I was a girl when I heard Martin Luther King Jr.’s "I Have a Dream" speech, delivered in August 1963 on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. The March on Washington and the speech have become as familiar to Americans as Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. One can say that both speeches changed the course of history. King’s speech changed the course of my life.

As the television brought real stories into America’s living rooms each night, introducing protests, speeches, and violence, people started to listen. In my neighborhood, young people began to talk about what the discourse on race meant to us, but never internalized what it meant to our non-white friends. We never discussed our privilege because we didn’t perceive ourselves as privileged, even though we were. Dr. King’s speech lit our collective conscience on fire.

I tell you this because it is my story … or a part of my story … and when we share stories we begin to see ourselves reflected back by those who listen. Storytelling takes us on a journey that is both personal and shared. Storytelling is a tradition celebrated in all cultures and serves to help us understand where we come from and why we matter. Storytelling motivates us to care about others and can even change minds.

On January 30, 2024, Bentley Library is welcoming an artist and a storyteller to share their stories and perform their art; to encourage us to recognize that it is through stories that we are bound to one another in purpose and dreams. Please join us in the Library Atrium:

• 10:45 AM-12:00 PM ☙ Shelley K. White, an educator and artist, leads a panel discussion about her art installation, Constructing Borders: Stories from Time Spent On the US-Mexico Border  
• 1:45-3:00 PM ☙ Valerie Tutson, a multiple award-winning storyteller, performs stories she learned in her travels to South Africa, her experiences in West Africa and stories from African American history