The eighth annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration hosted by Hancock Community Conversations on Race is Monday, Jan. 19, at 10 a.m. at Reynolds Hall, 52 Concord St., Peterborough, across from All Saints Episcopal Church.
“We hope people will come to remember Martin Luther King Jr., his lasting influence, and all the issues he addressed, which are still equally important today,” said organizer Robin Gregg. “It’s still necessary to talk about race and have those difficult conversations.”
This year’s event, “The Fierce Urgency of Now,” features Dr. Amilcar Shabazz and activist Tom Weiner, authors of “In Defiance: 20 Abolitionists You Were Never Taught In School.”
Weiner, an educator, writer, and anti-racism activist, and Shabazz, a professor at UMass Amherst and former president of the National Council for Black Studies, are co-authors of “In Defiance,” which tells the story of 20 little-known abolitionists, including both Black and white men and women.
“Two of our committee members, Mary Hubbard and Diane Feige, saw these speakers talk about their book at the Toadstool and just thought they were phenomenal, so we asked them to come speak at our event this year,” Gregg said. “Some years, we have multiple speakers, but this year we thought we really wanted the focus to be on these authors.”
The event includes a potluck brunch, music by Wendy Keith, and a display of art by students from ConVal elementary schools. The event is free and open to the public.
“As with the civil rights movement, where music was very important, we have to have music at our event,” Gregg said. “And each year, children create art around a different theme from Dr. King’s work. This year, the theme is ‘Where Do We Go From Here?'”
Gregg, who is an elementary school counselor for ConVal, said ConVal art teachers worked with students to create paper cutouts of feet depicting different ways in which students could “walk in Dr. King’s footsteps.”
“There will be art on all the tables, and we’ll hang it up on the walls,” Gregg said.
Following the main presentation, a designated person will guide a conversation at each table of attendees. The event will conclude with an all-group discussion of the issues raised in the talk and address any questions from the audience.
“We wanted a participatory element for this event. The question is always, what action can people take? We decided we needed time for people to talk,” Gregg said.
The Hancock Conversations group formed eight years ago in response to concerns about ongoing racial violence in the U.S.
“We wanted to do something about ongoing, pervasive problem of racism,” said Gregg, who was one of the original organizers. “We wanted to talk in a way where nobody was threatened. No one is ‘called out.’ Instead, we talk about ‘calling people in.'”
Gregg says the intent of all Hancock Conversations’ events is “to inspire people to take action.”
“Our goal, always, is to educate, inform, and inspire people to do more, whether it’s reading, forming a subgroup, talking to neighbors, writing to legislators—any type of action, small or large, after our event, is the goal,” Gregg said.
In the eight years that the group has been running–including a switch to Zoom during the Covid pandemic–members have delved into the history of race and the experience of being black in the U.S. From the very first meeting, the founders invited people of color from the Monadnock region to join and share their experiences.
“There are so many things a person of color may endure every day which other people might not be aware of. We have done a lot of consciousness raising, these issues are still with us, inform, educate and inspire to action,” Gregg said.
Gregg said the group took off immediately, with good turnout and high engagement.
“We had 30 people show up at our first meeting,” she said. “We looked at history of race in America, starting with post-Civil War era; we looked at the wealth gap, we looked at how institutionalized racism affected the experience of Black people, from housing policy to the GI bill, we looked at systemic issues. We also looked at very personal issues. It was a safe place for people to about their experiences with race, whether it was mistaken impressions or revelations about things that happened.”
Gregg said the group started discussing the creation of a Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration in Hancock soon after founding.
“It was right around Hanukkah and we said there has never been a MLK day event in Hancock. We didn’t have a lot of time to get it together that first time, but we pulled it together at the Hancock Vestry, ” Gregg said. “We had some speakers, we did some talking, there was singing — we always want there to be music. Then we moved to Peterborough in order to have a larger venue, although we are very mindful about not competing with the event in Jaffrey. We deliberately chose a different time.”
The annual Jaffrey-Rindge celebration of MLK Day is 5 p.m. Monday, Jan. 19, at the Park Theater.
Gregg said the conversations group is always looking for more volunteers.
“We hope we get new people who will maybe read about it and decided to come. We hope this event spurs people to action,” Gregg said.