USM Students Join Local High School Students to Celebrate Black History Month
February 1, 2010
In celebration of Black History Month, USM Multicultural Student Affairs and high school students from the award-winning WMPG Blunt Youth Radio Project will host an evening of readings and performances, “The Beloved Community: Nurturing the Dream for Portland’s Communities.” The public is invited to this program, taking place from 5 to 7 p.m. on Thursday, February 11 at USM’s Hannaford Lecture Hall in the Abromson Community Education Center on the Portland campus. There will be a reception before the program from 4 to 5 p.m. where light refreshments will be served and guests will have the opportunity to interact with participating students.
Using Martin Luther King Jr.’s concept of “The Beloved Community,” high school students will promote non-violence through spoken word, dance, and musical performances. USM students will read excerpts from King’s “The Beloved Community” as well as original poetry by USM Stonecoast MFA student and Maliseet poet Mihku Paul. For more information, contact Susan Evans, Coordinator of Multicultural Student Affairs, at
sevans@usm.maine.edu. This event is free and open to the public.
As part of the evening, local area high schools, civil rights teams, Maine Interface Youth, and community leaders will perform and participate in discussions about Portland’s diverse communities. USM’s Youth Writing Project will share examples of stories school children wrote in observance of Martin Luther King Jr.’s life, and the Sudanese students from Casco Bay High School will show a PSA and video documentary they produced.
Among the groups performing will be students from Portland’s Casco Bay High School, the Bonny Eagle High School Drama Club, the Falmouth High School Civil Rights Team, Maine Youth Interfaith Alliance, USM Multicultural Student Affairs, the Center for African Heritage Organic Farming Youth Project, and participants from the NAACP Community Writing Project.
The Blunt Youth Radio Project produces a weekly call-in talk show that airs Monday nights from 7:30-8:30 on USM’s community radio station WMPG, 90.9 and 104.1 FM.
The University of Southern Maine (USM) offers its nearly 10,000 students more than 115 areas of undergraduate and graduate study. USM’s location in southern Maine, a region cited as one of the most liveable in the country, offers a range of educational, cultural and recreational opportunities.
