Staff Writer- Evangelyn Hill
In partnership with community organizations, Gustavus will be hosting three events on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, this upcoming Monday (the 19th). The day’s events will be free and open to the public (and involve free snacks).
The first event is from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. in the banquet rooms in the Jackson Campus Center. This open-house-style engagement event will give students an opportunity to explore service and volunteer opportunities in the St. Peter and Mankato community.
Next, there will be a “Stories and Conversation Event” from 1:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. in the CIE, where participants will engage in small group conversation reflecting on MLK Day, service, and community. Also, a Gustavus alum speaker, Donte Curtis, will be speaking.
Finally, from 5:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at the St. Peter Community Center, students and community members will participate in a guided conversation, then enjoy a film screening.
While celebrating Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision for the community, participants can enjoy walking tacos (at the engagement event) and movie snacks (at the Community Center event). There will also be opportunities to win prizes donated by local businesses.
This year’s MLK Day events will focus on King’s concept of “the beloved community,” and in particular, how we can actively participate in building that community.
Thomas Flunker is director of the CIE, one of the organizations sponsoring Gustavus’s MLK Day events. “Our focus is on… the broader sense of the beloved community. What our hope is, is not just for people to take some time to have discussions with the organizations that are here with the opportunities they have to become part of the overall community, but to also take some time to actually think about what Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision was when it came to… taking an active step and being a part of that. The hope is that when everyone gets done with the day, there’s a relit fire… for taking an active role in realizing his dream by being an active component in that journey of awareness,” Flunker Said.
Loramy Gerstbauer, professor of Peace and Justice studies and co-organizer of Gustavus’s MLK Day, explained that each of the three events was designed to incorporate that focus on active community-creation. Gerstbauer stressed that MLK Day is often celebrated as a day of service, and so Gustavus wanted to focus on that as well.
For that reason, local partners like the League of Women Voters and the St. Peter Food Shelf were asked to come to the Gustavus campus to share their work—and service opportunities—with students.
Flunker is excited about this year’s growing focus on active community engagement: “One of the things that I’ve watched us do over the last few years in particular, is reengaging with our extended community… [realizing] that now Gustavus is part of a bigger entity. My hope is that not only we can welcome our community up to campus, but also find ways for our campus to engage with St Peter, Mankato, and the overall region.”
Gerstbauer echoed Flunker’s sentiments, reflecting on how MLK Day brought students and community members together last year: “What I witnessed last year is—community members came, children were there from the community… high school students came. It was very much an intergenerational celebration of building a better community.”
Martin Lang is a Gustavus professor involved in organizing MLK Day and a part of the St. Peter Good Neighbor Diversity Council, which co-sponsored some of the events. Lang called this intersection of involvement “a cool sweet spot in my life where my professional work and my community life overlap in valuable ways.”
He explained that MLK Day is a time when Gustavus and the greater local community can come together: “A highlight of the on-campus MLK Day events is seeing folks from local organizations come and connect with students who are curious and invested in justice, equity, and peace. These two groups don’t mingle very often. Last year, I eavesdropped on so many awesome conversations, with students learning what on-the-ground advocacy looks like in the world beyond college, and the community members feeding on all the young energy, passion, and perspectives students bring to the table. Literal tables, in this case!”
This coming together of diverse groups and perspectives is, to Lang, at the heart of this year’s MLK Day focus on the beloved community. Lang said, “We have leaned into an aspect of MLK’s mission that doesn’t get as much play, but we think is at the core of all movements for peace and justice: the Beloved Community… It aligns perfectly with Gustavus’ own core values and is 100% actionable: community isn’t an outcome, it’s a process, and every effort we make to realize a Beloved Community is contributing to its success.”
He ended with words of encouragement to students interested in attending the MLK Day events.
“I hope everyone participating recognizes that they are contributing to realizing [MLK’s] vision, simply by virtue of coming with an open mind and generous spirit,” Lang said.