2024 MLK Day Convocation Program

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JANUARY 15 MLKDAYNASHVILLE.COM

10:00AM

TENNESSEE STATE UNIVERSITY GENTRY CENTER

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Keynote Speaker Nikki Giovanni is one of this country’s most widely read poets and one of America’s most renowned poets world-wide. Her poem, “Knoxville, Tennessee,” is arguably the single literary work most often associated with that city.

Nikki Giovanni was born Yolande Cornelia Giovanni, Jr. in Knoxville, Tennessee, in 1943, but her parents moved to the all-black Cincinnati suburb of Lincoln Heights when she was an infant. She and her sisters spent the summers with their grandparents in Knoxville, and she returned there for her high school years. She enrolled as an early entrant at Fisk University, where her grandfather had graduated, but was “released” in February in 1961, because her attitudes were deemed inappropriate for a “Fisk woman.” She then returned home and took classes at the University of Cincinnati until she returned to Fisk in 1964. At Fisk, she reinstituted the school’s chapter of SNCC, edited the literary magazine, and graduated magna cum laude in history in 1967. Returning to Cincinnati, she directed the city’s first Black Arts Festival before enrolling briefly in the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Social Work. Recognizing that she was not meant to be a social worker, she entered Columbia University’s MFA program. In 1968 she self-published her first poetry book, a nineteen-page staple-bound volume entitled, Black Feeling Black Talk, which sold some 2,000 copies in its first few months, which allowed Giovanni to self-publish her second book of poetry, Black Judgement. William Morrow & Company approached her about publishing her first two volumes together in one book, and Black Feeling Black Talk/Black Judgement was published in 1970.

During the late 60s and early 70s, Giovanni lived in New York and, after giving birth to her only child, Thomas, began earning an income through her lectures and poetry readings. Her frequent appearances on the Black entertainment show SOUL!!, along with her extensive lecture tours, made her one of the most popular and recognizable poets of the Black Arts Movement. In 1971, Gemini: An Extended Autobiographical Statement on My First Twenty-Five Years of Being a Black Poet was a finalist for the National Book Award. In that same year she published her first children’s book, Spin a Soft Black Song, and released the album Truth Is On Its Way Is On Its Way, on which she read her poetry with and in juxtaposition to the New York Community Choir; although she made no money from it, Truth was an enormous success, selling some 100,000 copies in the first six months of its release.

In 1978, Giovanni’s father suffered a stroke, and she and her son returned to Cincinnati to take care of her parents, and she did brief teaching stints at The Ohio State University and the College of Mount St. Joseph on the Ohio. In 1987 Nikki Giovanni began teaching at Virginia Tech, where she was named, in 1999, a University Distinguished Professor. Since she has been at Virginia Tech, she has published two collections of essays, several illustrated children’s books (including the award-winning Rosa), and ten volumes of poetry for adults. In 2005, both her mother and her sister died of lung cancer, for which Giovanni herself had undergone successful surgery some ten years earlier. The loss of her mother was as profound a blow as she had ever experienced.

Giovanni has received numerous awards in the course of her career, including seven Image Awards from the N.A.A.C.P., more than two-dozen honorary degrees, the first Rosa Parks Woman of Courage Award, the Langston Hughes Medal for Poetry, and the Carl Sandburg Literary Award; additionally, Oprah Winfrey recognized her in 2005 as one of twenty-five “Living Legends.”

She continues to teach, write, and publish books, the most recent of which is A Good Cry. Her newest collection, Make Me Rain, was released in October of 2020.

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MLK Day Convocation Program Order of Service

Pre-Convocation Performance

CoJo Ko Music, Artist

Mistress of Ceremonies

Harriet Vaughan-Wallace, Wallace Media Group

Processional

Maplewood High School Jr. ROTC

Pledge and Presentation of Colors

Maplewood High School Jr. ROTC

Musical Selection – Lift Every Voice & Sing

W. Crimm Singers

Invocation

Rev. Kelli X, Director of Racial Justice Ministries Scarritt Bennett Center

Welcome

Honorable Cheryl Mayes, D6 Board of Education IMF MLK Day Committee Chair

Occasion

Adrianne Gott MLK Day Youth Committee Chair

Musical Selection

W. Crimm Singers

Greetings

Dr. Glenda Glover – TSU President Raumesh Akbari, TN State Senator District 29 Charlane Oliver, TN State Senator District 19 Rev. Dr. Harold M. Love, Jr. TN House District 58 Mayor Freddie O’Connell, Metro Nashville

Presentation of Community Gifts

Pastor Lisa Hammonds IMF, Treasurer

Musical Selection

Jefferson Street Baptist Church Choir

Sponsor Remarks

HCA Healthcare, Sherri Neal Amazon, Michelle Brown

Spoken Word Performance

Lochlan Cook, 2023 Nashville Youth Poet Laureate

Introduction of Keynote Speaker

Charlane Oliver, TN State Senator District 19

Keynote Address

Ms. Nikki Giovanni

Closing Remarks/ Benediction

Pastor Davey Tucker - IMF President MLKDAYNASHVILLE.COM

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Tractor Supply Company and the African Americans On The R.I.S.E. Team Member Engagement Group is a Proud Sponsor of the Nashville MLK Day Celebration.

We support the dream of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with our commitment to protect the dream by promoting love, unity, and non-violence.

At Tractor Supply we strive to create an inclusive and welcoming environment that honors the experiences and differences that make us all unique. We believe we are stronger together and that together everyone achieves more!

www.mojomktg.com

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The Martin Luther King Day celebration in Nashville, hosted by the Interdenominational Ministers Fellowship (IMF), is the largest citywide event in honor of the life and legacy of Dr. King. Our schedule includes: our youth rally, our commemorative march down historic Jefferson Street to Tennessee State University, and the annual convocation.

2023 will mark our 38th Year (1986 – 2023) celebrating MLK Day in Nashville and it is the role that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. played in the Civil Rights Movement, overall and the influence he had on our city’s own activism that makes this long-standing event a national treasure Dr. King came to Nashville and spoke on several occasions, but it is the organized effort of student leaders from Historically Black Colleges and Universities in Music City that inspired him.

In fact, his now famous quote, “I came to Nashville not to bring inspiration, but to gain inspiration from the great movement that has taken place in this community…” that indicates the leadership, strength and determination to end segregation and the role that Nashville played in the entire movement. Coordinated by the Nashville Student Movement and the Nashville Christian Leadership Council (NCLC, which was affiliated with Dr.King’s Southern Christian Leadership Council (SCLC)), our city was one of the beacons of how to change the legislative thought process of that time. Students, led by Diane Nash, the late US Congressman, John Lewis and others marched along Jefferson St. to the city capitol to demand that then Mayor Ben West answer the question, ‘Is it right (legal) to keep Blacks from lunch counters?’

In 1988, a group of local leaders, led by IMF, came together to honor, recreate and celebrate the National MLK Day that had just five years earlier had been signed by President Ronald Regan with the first national observance occurring in 1986.

Freedom Rider, the late Mr. Rip Patton, speaking in front of the now famous quote by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. regarding his interest in coming to Nashville to learn from the organized movement led by students in Nashville. The quote is located in the Civil Rights Room of the Downtown Nashville Public Library.

The IMF celebration brings thousands of attendees each year and is considered a nationally recognized gathering to commemorate Dr. King. Coverage of the events can be viewed on our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/mlkdaynashville Nashville’s MLK Day has been featured as part of the C-Span: Where History Unfolds Daily scheduled stops.

With local, regional and national media coverage, the event’s website averages over 10,000 website visits/annually and a strong social media following.

We hope you feel the positive energy and develop interest in supporting IMF’s 36th Annual MLK Day Celebration. We are excited to have you as a part of this year’s events!

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About Interdenominational Ministers Fellowship Dr. King’s role as a leader in the Civil Rights Movement and the influence he had on Nashville’s activism makes this longstanding event a national treasure. Dr. King came to Nashville and spoke on several occasions, but it was the organized effort of student leaders from Historically Black Colleges and Universities in Music City that inspired him. In fact, Dr. King’s now famous quote, “I came to Nashville not to bring inspiration, but to gain inspiration from the great movement that has taken place in this community…”

Nashvillians have stood strong for Civil Rights since the beginning and through leadership, strength and determination to end segregation at the diner counters to the role that Nashville plays today.

Coordinated by the Nashville Student Movement and the Nashville Christian Leadership Council (NCLC), which was affiliated with Dr.King’s Southern Christian Leadership Council (SCLC), our city was one of the beacons of how to change the legislative thought process of that time.

Students, led by Diane Nash, the late US Congressman, John Lewis and others marched along Jefferson St. to the city capitol to demand that then Mayor Ben West answer the question, ‘Is it right (legal) to keep Blacks from lunch counters?’

In 1988, a group of local leaders, led by IMF, came together to honor, recreate and celebrate the National MLK Day that had just five years earlier had been signed by President Ronald Regan with the first national observance occurring in 1986.

The MLK Day March and Convocation have been organized by the Interdenominational Ministers Fellowship since 1989.

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Our Theme The 2024 Nashville MLK Day theme, inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s work "Why We Can't Wait," emphasizes "Activating Our Power for Equity and Justice." Echoing Dr. King's poignant words on the urgency of the present moment, the theme is a persistent call to combat the whitewashing and suppression of Black U.S. history.

Building on the 2023 theme "Protecting the Dream: Confronting the Assaults," this year's focus underscores the imperative of moving beyond passive observation to dynamic engagement.

Recent years have witnessed legislative and educational efforts aimed at erasing Black narratives; thus, the theme rallies communities to confront this encroachment head-on, echoing Dr. King's assertion that freedom is wrested from oppressors through unwavering demand. The 2024 theme serves as a rallying cry, reinvigorating the commitment to forge an equitable and just future through resolute action.

"We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now."

- DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. MLKDAYNASHVILLE.COM

Acknowledgments

The Interdenominational Ministers Fellowship would like to acknowledge with sincere appreciation and gratitude, the individuals, groups and organizations who contributed to this program

2024 MLK Day Committee & Board Members Bishop Aaron Marble – IMF Vice President Rev. Lisa Hammonds – IMF Treasurer

Cheryl Mayes – Planning Committee Chair Tabitha Mundy – MLK Gala Committee Chair

Administrative Group Kathy Buggs – Logistics Chair Rev. Brian Fesler – Finance Chair Monchiere’ Holmes-Jones – Marketing/PR Committee Chair Cheryl Mayes – Development Chair Patricia Malone Smith – Volunteer Committee Co-Chair Scott Wallace and Ashford Hughes, Sr. – March and Security Coordinators Cathy Carrillo & Aaron Marble – Community Engagement Committee Co-Chairs

Programming Group Adrianne Gott – Youth Committee Chair Vonda McDaniel – Labor/Human Right Breakfast Chair Revs. Sondrea Tolbert & Kelli X – Women of Faith Committee Co-Chairs Ashford Hughes, Sr. – Book Club Chair Beverly Watts – Intergenerational Panel Chair

Youth Committee Members Adrianne Gott Ashford Hughes Taibtha Mundy Cheryl Mayes Benjamin Smith

Additional Committee Members DeSean Keys Veronica McGraw Joshua Ogunyemi Benjamin Smith Mia Vickers Sheryl Huff Dr. Berthena Nabaa-McKinney Pastor Frank Stevenson

Thank you to the following individuals/organizations for their support Jefferson Street Baptist Church Tennessee State University Mayors’ Office of Nashville/Davidson County Metro Nashville Public Schools Maplewood High School Color Guard Brantley Sound Wallace Media Group MOJO MKTG + PR Oasis Center DJ Humphrey Bogart My Toolbox Consulting Donzaleigh’s Photography National Museum of African American Music Alpha Chi Chapter of Chi Eta Phi, Inc

National Coalition of 100 Black Women, Inc., Metro Nashville Chapter Tennessee Human Rights Commission Jewish Federation of Greater Nashville Middle TN National Action Network Nashville CARES Tennessee United for Human Rights Nashville Community Review Board Urban League of Middle Tennessee Southern Word Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. 92Q / Cumulus Broadcasting Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. The Write Keys 2 Consulting

Special Acknowledgement

The Nashville MLK Day Planning Committee would like to extend our heartfelt thank you to President Dr. Glenda Glover for her tireless and dedicated service to the students, faculty and staff at Tennessee State University and the entire Nashville community. Your leadership and commitment will leave a legacy like none other. We wish you all the joy, happiness and success your next chapter brings. Blessings to you and THANK YOU for your unwavering support of the Interdenominational Ministers Fellowship and the Nashville MLK Day events