In its fourth year of officially recognizing Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday, the University is planning an extended range of commemorative activities for Monday and throughout the upcoming weeks.
Not only is Penn organizing the traditional volunteer activities, but it is also hosting some big-name speakers -- most notably civil rights activist Jesse Jackson, who will speak in Irvine Auditorium on Thursday.
On Monday, saxophonist, singer and song-writer SOOZ will kick off the day's events at 9 a.m. with a musical performance, following a continental breakfast at the Annenberg Center. The event is a collaboration with GlaxoSmithKline and WXPN-FM's Kids Corner program called "Stand Up! Speak Out!"
Machamma Quinichett, the executive chairwoman of the committee planning MLK Day events, said the purpose of the performance "is to motivate and to encourage people to stand up for equality and justice in the world."
"We really want to promote the symposium and the day of service as being for everyone, not just for a particular race ... or class," she said. "And that's what Dr. King promoted. Justice and equality for everyone."
The Center for Community Partnerships has planned a number of service opportunities throughout the day.
Beginning at 10 a.m., interested students will be taken from the Annenberg Center to West Philadelphia High School at 49th and Walnut streets to clean, repaint and beautify the school building.
The Golkin Room at Houston Hall will feature training for students and community members looking to become literacy tutors.
Also, volunteers can stop by Houston Hall's Bodek Lounge to help create gifts for Philadelphia shelters and nursing homes.
"We're ... making lap blankets and stuffing socks with different toiletries, and we're going to distribute these to elders ... stuck in their homes," said Isabell Mapp, the director of Penn volunteers in public services at the Center for Community Partnerships. "We're also making cards to go along with these gifts."
Local children will be on campus painting commemorative Martin Luther King banners that will be used with the Interfaith Program later in the week.
"It's a full day to do good and help others and we certainly hope the student population comes out," Mapp said.
Penn's student leaders have been invited to the Greenfield Intercultural Center for dinner and a discussion of King's life and its relevance to campus issues.
And afterwards, the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity will hold a candlelight vigil set to begin at 7 p.m. Participants will converge in Houston Hall from three points on campus, pausing to consider the importance of King's legacy.
On Wednesday, the Office of the Chaplain will hold its Interfaith Program, where Cheryl Townsend Gilkes, a Colby College professor and Baptist pastor, will speak about social justice.
"The intention ... is to have at least one program where we focus on the religious dimensions of the civil rights movement," University Chaplain William Gipson said.
"Martin Luther King was a man of the cloth," he added. "But that inspired him to reach out beyond his particular sect" to people all across the world.
The program includes a presentation of community service awards to local activists and performances by Penn's Shabbatones and New Spirit of Penn Gospel Choir.
Thursday offers another busy day of commemorative activities.
Beginning at 12:30 p.m., the Kelly Writers House will hold a reading of Martin Luther King's famous letter sent from his Birmingham, Ala., jail cell.
"There's not many better ways to really get involved with a piece of writing," said Writers House Director Jennifer Snead. "To read it out loud with a group of people and share it is a really nice community experience."
The Penn American Red Cross is holding a Martin Luther King remembrance drive from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Thursday in Houston Hall's Bodek Lounge. The American Red Cross recently issued an appeal for blood donations.
At 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, the Center for Africana Studies will offer a discussion of Martin Luther King's life and legacy featuring Jackson, founder of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition. With Michael Eric Dyson, a Penn professor of Africana Studies, Jackson will field questions from a packed Irvine Auditorium.
Students interested in learning more about any of the activities to honor King can log on to www.upenn.edu/aarc/mlk. Events hosted by groups such as the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Center, the Christian Association and the African-American Resource Center will continue through the end of January.
"It's going to be a great experience," Snead said of the upcoming events.
"I'm psyched."
