Selma, Panels, and Service: Honoring MLK Week at Juilliard

Celebrations of Martin Luther King will have even more resonance than usual this year

Coming on the heels of the violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and just prior to Joseph R. Biden’s inauguration as U.S. president, Martin Luther King Jr. Day—January 18—will have even more resonance than usual. At Juilliard, the annual week of events celebrating MLK Jr.’s legacy will provide opportunities for students and other community members to reflect on and discuss relevant civil rights issues.

The centerpiece of the week’s events is Ava DuVernay’s memorable dramatization of the historic 1965 march in Alabama for voting rights led by King and future congressman John Lewis, the Oscar-winning 2014 film Selma, which will be available for students, faculty, and staff to watch on January 18 via JuilCat. On Thursday, January 21, there will be a Zoom panel discussion for the Juilliard community about Selma and its continued relevance today moderated by Fredara Hadley, a professor of ethnomusicology at Juilliard.

Speaking about the event, Hadley noted that Selma is an important film in many ways: “It pays homage to John Lewis, whom we just recently lost and are still in mourning for. But broader than that, it’s a film that documents a moment of young people organizing for the change they want to see in a democratic way.”

Selma’s compelling depiction of an historic act of civil disobedience has parallels to events that we have all witnessed in the past year. “We are coming out of a really complicated election cycle in a really complicated political moment,” Hadley said. “But what we’re seeing are a lot of younger voters motivated to engage in the process. The whole question of who democracy is for is at the root of Selma: These people risked life and limb to participate in the process. That point comes through very strongly and reminds us of the best and worst of who we are.”

Selma has a number of Juilliard ties. Creative Associate Colman Domingo, who plays Ralph Abernathy, King’s close friend and mentor, will introduce the panel, and Creative Associate Jason Moran—who composed the score—will share stills from his work with DuVernay on the film. Participating in the discussion with Hadley will be Calvin Walton, who’s on the faculty of Georgia Southern University, and Morgan Rhodes, who was the film’s music supervisor.

In describing the panelists, Hadley noted that Walton “has a real understanding of the history of this era, so his perspective is especially important, and Rhodes will talk about how she found music that captured the spirit of what was happening at each point of the film.”

[[Editor's note: This event has been postponed at the last minute due to unforeseen circumstances.]] Another highlight of MLK Week will be a conversation on January 22 with Damian Woetzel, Juilliard’s president, and Clarence B. Jones. Jones, who studied clarinet at Juilliard when he was in high school, was a speechwriter for and close confidante of Martin Luther King and later co-founded the University of San Francisco Institute for Nonviolence and Social Justice. He returns virtually to Juilliard a year after receiving a President’s Medal.

Other events during MLK Week at Juilliard include a Liberal Arts discussion about Confederate monuments, Memorializing Identity: The Statue Debate (January 19) and a student service event in collaboration with Ronald McDonald House.

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Kevin Filipski is Juilliard’s program editor