Kent State’s May 4 Visitors Center will host the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum’s vice president of education and public programs on Monday, March 30 at 7 p.m. in the Kiva.

The vice president, Lauren Onkey, is the first presenter of a month-long series of events to kick off the 45th annual commemoration of the tragedy that occurred on the Kent State campus on May 4, 1970, according to a university press release.

Her presentation, “What’s Going On: Marvin Gaye, Vietnam and the Rise of Political Soul,” will discuss Marvin Gaye’s 1971 album “What’s Going On” and the effects it created during the Vietnam War.

Mindy Farmer, the director of the May 4 Visitors Center, said her goal for programming this year was to reach a wide variety of audiences and interests.

“Music has always been a way to communicate,” Farmer said. “I think we can all appreciate the song ‘What’s Going On,’ and she (Onkey) is going to tell us more about it.”

According to the press release, the other events planned for the 45th Annual May 4 Commemoration include the following:

• April 6: Farmer and David Hassler, director of Kent State’s Wick Poetry Center, will lead a discussion titled “Overcoming Trauma Through Creative Writing” in the Wick Poetry Center at 7 p.m.

• April 9: “The Legacy of Matthew Shepard: Learn How One Mother Used Her Grief to Make a Difference” will be presented by Judy Shepard at 7:30 p.m. in the Schwartz Center, Room 177. Free tickets are available atwww.kent.edu/May4.

• April 16: Farmer will present “The Future of May 4” at 7 p.m. in Taylor Hall, Room 146.

• April 30: There will be a special showing of the movie “Dick Cavett’s Vietnam” and a discussion with documentary filmmaker John Scheinfeld and Timothy Naftali, the head of Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives at New York University and former director of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, at 7:30 p.m. in the Schwartz Center, Room 177.

Contact Kate Schwanke at [email protected].