Students, faculty and other members of the Kent community are invited to attend the Dialogue and Difference: A New Understanding series, starting off with MLK & Me: Living A Life of Peace During Conflict luncheon to learn King’s core values on Feb. 1.

The luncheon, which will begin at 11:30 a.m. in the Student Center Ballroom, will feature a panelist of speakers who will discuss topics related to King’s guiding principles and how to live according to such.

Co-chairs of the Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Events Committee Katie Mattise, director in the Division of People, Culture and Belonging, and Shana Lee, assistant dean of students and director for Parents and Family Engagement, organized the luncheon in hopes of addressing conflicts occurring overseas, Lee said.

“Because of what is happening across seas with all the conflict … it was really time we needed to come together and talk about it,” Lee said.

Lee said people can benefit from looking at King’s teachings as how to move forward from these conflicts. With this in mind, the luncheon’s speakers are composed of individuals from the university’s faculty and staff.

The selection process for choosing panelists involved considering which faculty and staff members knew of King’s history or embodied a few of his principles, Matisse said.

“During that conversation about what we could do this year, realizing we have a lot of really great people at [the university],” they said. “One of the ways we can really start to elevate the work and people that are here … and this was a great platform for it.”

Another factor considered when choosing panelists was the perspective they could offer to the conversation. Lee said panelists like Dominique Hill, assistant dean of students, were chosen because of his perspective of growing up in the South.

“[Hill] has a totally different perspective. I think that we haven’t necessarily heard about what this work then means in terms of how he embodies it in everything that he does,” she said.

Other speakers at the event include Daniel Diaz Nilsson, assistant dean for access and engagement, Jacquelyn Bleak, associate lecturer and Elizabeth Smith-Pryor, associate professor.

The time of the event was also changed to an earlier time which will help allow for people to become closer together throughout the conversation, Lee said.

Other events in honor of Black History Month occurring on campus include the Black United Students Mass Meeting, a Kuumba Night and a discussion on Black identity by Victoria Alexander.

“When you’re coming together and you’re breaking bread, that helps to diminish barriers and creates a safe space,” she said.

In addition, the date of the luncheon was moved closer to February to give individuals more time to adjust from coming back from winter break and for the event to coincide with Black History Month, Mattise said.

Other aspects of the conversation which will occur at the luncheon include context and understanding about King’s life as well as how people can learn how to embody his values, Mattise said.

“I’m not a Martin Luther King Jr. scholar, so I am coming to this event to learn, too, which I am excited about,” Mattise said.

With this in mind, Matisse said they were interested in learning more about how King’s principle of nonviolence can be applied and how conflict is able to bring individuals together.

“There’s these amazing kinds of roadmaps, like [Lee] said, that we can strive for though it can be really hard to,” Mattise said. “In terms of [King’s] philosophy, how do people stay true to it or try to stay as true to it as possible.”

Lee said she is looking forward to hearing discussion about King’s standards of human decency.

“I watch ‘Good Morning America’ every morning and it’s … showing how, to me, we’re getting so far left of what human decency means,” she said. “Everything that’s going on in our state and people attacking [diversity, equity and inclusion] efforts.”

The timelessness of King’s teaching is what Lee said she hopes individuals take away from the conversation during the luncheon.

“What’s so great about the man that [King] is that everything that he talked about is timeless,” she said. “It’s been 60 plus years now and we can still apply, you know, his rhetoric, his speeches, his teachings to any aspect of our lives today.”

While Mattise said they hope individuals will take away the understanding of how change requires everyone as well as the skill to have difficult conversations.

“Go forth, build that skill and know that they need to be part of this community that we have here at [the university],” they said.

Adriana Gasiewski is a beat reporter. Contact her at [email protected].