On the chilly day of Jan. 20, 2024, students, faculty and community members gathered across Concordia’s campus to honor the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.
The day started at 9:30 a.m. with three concurrent sessions: “BIRT Re-Imagined: Concordia’s Bias Incident Reporting Process and Purpose,” “Empowering Diverse Voices in Career Development” and “Environmental Justice: What is it and Why Does it Matter?”
These sessions discussed environmental justice, inclusivity in careers and biases pertaining to Concordia’s BIRT (Bias Incident Response Team) processes.
At 10:30 a.m., a Local Activism Panel was hosted by Sunet Rubalcava, Assistant director of orientation and first-year transition, in the Centrum. The panel was made up of Frederick Edwards, co-founder of Umoja Inc., Zinnia Marquette, Diversity and Inclusion Coordinator at Minnesota State University Moorhead and LexX Francis, a local poet and activist.
The group discussed their past experiences within activism, including their educational journeys. Marquette, being a Concordia College alum, expressed the need for connection.
“Find your people,” she said. “There are people here that are going to change your life.”
Marquette also stressed the importance of building up rapport and relations with your professors and other faculty.
“It’s not going to be your Religion 200 class that leaves an impression,” she said. “It’s going to be the professor.”
As the panel was wrapping up, Edwards told everyone to work a little less and “get to know yourself more.”
Francis left the audience with the permission to recenter yourself and set boundaries.
“Replanting yourself is okay,” Francis said. “Taking time and space for yourself is okay. It’s okay to take that space.”
After lunch, many gathered back into the Centrum for the keynote speaker, Jaimee A. Swift, assistant professor of Black Politics at James Madison University and the executive director and Creator of Black Women Radicals.
The keynote, “Where do We Go From Here, We Who Did Not Die: On Radical Hope and Black Feminist Worldmaking,” focused heavily on the past and the important figures that helped shape policy and reform around feminism and human rights.
Swift pulled heavily from Martin Luther King Jr. and June Jordan, two activists that focused heavily on race and representation. Swift drew connections between these activists and key issues such as gender, sexuality, religion, immigration and climate change.
Swift also alluded to Octavia Butler, author of “Parable of the Sower.” Butler’s 1993 novel takes place in post-apocalyptic America in the year 2024 right outside of Los Angeles.
“How do re reckon with the pending affects of climate change when Los Angeles is being ravaged in flames?” Swift said.
According to American Forests, wildfires are currently engulfing 48,000 acres of California, mainly around Los Angeles and the surrounding area.
“Like MLK and Jordan, I believe and know that it is the power in the people and the community where we will all find hope and salvation,” Swift said.
She then went on to discuss people and places who pioneered movements in the black feminist communities, including Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, two prominent figures in the Stonewall Uprising, Nikki Giovanni, author and activist and Mary McLeod Bethune, founder of Daytona Educational and Industrial Training School for Negro Girls, now called Bethune-Cookman University, among others.
After showing many examples of Black Feminist World makers, Swift moved into discussing her hopes for the future.
“No movement is possible without hope,” Swift said.
