In celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day IU Community Educators, a group dedicated to fostering diversity in the residence halls, put on Formation Exhibition on Monday night to celebrate diversity among minorities.
Students gathered at Willkie Quad, where there was food, music, discussion questions, photo galleries and live performances celebrating the activism that took place during the civil rights movement. The event highlighted female activists, such as Angela Davis and Toni Morrison.
The live performances focused on IU students’ experiences as black individuals. Audience members supported performers with clapping and shouting that suggested an understanding of their experience.
Performer Zachary Price spoke about his experiences as a black person during his performance.
“I’m pro-me. That doesn’t make me anti-you, until you’re anti-us,” Price said in his untitled exposé on his blackness.
One exhibit of photos demonstrated the repetition of history by showing recent photos that parallel photos taken during the civil rights movement.
“The past, until you confront it, until you live through it, keeps coming back in other forms,” according to a Toni Morrison quote that hung in the exhibit.
The photos taken within the past couple of years parallel the photos taken during the civil rights movement.
There are many similarities, such as violence against black individuals and protesters demanding equality for black individuals.
One photo showed the grave of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old boy who was lynched for reportedly flirting with a white woman. The photo below it showed a memorial for Trayvon Martin, a boy who was shot and killed after going out to get Skittles and iced tea.
Another series of photos showed activists marching in Washington, D.C., in 2015, which paralleled a photo of activists marching in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1965.
In both photos the activists are marching for equal treatment and justice for black individuals.
“When someone asks me about violence, I just find it incredible because what it means is that the person who’s asking that question has absolutely no idea what black people have gone through, what black people have experienced in this country, since the time the first black person was kidnapped from the shores of Africa,” according to an Angela Davis quote, which hung in a second exhibit.
This exhibit highlighted members of the Black Panther Party, Martin Luther King Jr, and Malcolm X — all prominent leaders who directly experienced violence during the civil rights movement.
“I learned the black person narrative,” said Gelis Galarce, a freshman of Puerto Rican descent. “Just about how people with a different background experience things in a different way. Not necessarily from a white perspective, but not necessarily from a black perspective.”
The Formation Exhibition celebrated the legacy of not only Martin Luther King Jr. but also the legacies of other activists, such as Morrison and Davis.
Destiny Tucker, an IU junior and Jacobs School of Music student performed “Wake Up Everybody” by Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes. She said she chose it because it felt especially relevant because of the end of President Obama’s administration.
“I’ve had really great influences in my life that have made me want to get more involved when it comes to social matters and really speak up,” said Tucker, whose own grandmother marched with Martin Luther King Jr.
