Eugene B. Redmond Poetically Honors Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at SIUE’s Awards Luncheon Celebration
They were words of tribute and honor, fit for a King, and masterfully crafted and delivered by regal poets in their own right at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Birthday Celebration. Watch video here.
Dr. Eugene B. Redmond, SIUE emeritus professor of English, East St. Louis poet laureate and co-founder of the Eugene B. Redmond Writers Club, was the keynote speaker Wednesday at the 32nd Annual MLK Award Celebration.
Redmond – a former Alestle editor and SIUE East St. Louis campus student who traveled to Washington, D.C., for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom – performed an original poem. Redmond was joined by his daughter, Treasure Shields Redmond, an assistant professor of English at Southwestern Illinois College, in the reading of “Dreaming With Wings: Odyssey of an Era.”
SIUE Chancellor Julie Furst-Bowe welcomed the sold-out luncheon crowd, “Dr. King was a moral voice for our times, championing equal rights and the use of nonviolent civil disobedience to counteract oppression and racism wherever it might exist.”
Of the stately, powerful and peaceful man the world knew as King, Redmond and Shields Redmond read in tandem. Portions of the poem are as follows:
“He was Royal and Regular and Righteous, . . . Theologian, Thespian and Battle-Wrought Rebel . . . We were born again on 1960’s battlefields of study, consciousness and struggle . . . As we followed Dr. King’s global model of marrying activism to moral, cultural and social concerns.
Redmond and Shields Redmond ended the MLK poem by saying of the great civil rights leader in a rousing and emotive melody:
“He could NEVER unlove us. Unlove us never. Unlove us never!”
Kenny Coleman, a sophomore Theater and Performance major, also took the stage with a poem he penned, questioning those who feel superior. A portion of “What is Piety?” reads:
“I am drunk off the darkness of my skin tone. I find bliss in being loud like a megaphone. I come up in rooms clowning like a cyclone. They say it’s because I’m different. . .”
SIUE principles, Furst-Bowe remarked earlier, are to include and uplift everyone in the University community. The values include citizenship, integrity and inclusion.
Photos:
Eugene B. Redmond and daughter Treasure Shields Redmond read a poem they wrote about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Kenny Coleman, a sophomore Theater and Performance major, performed his poem, “What is Piety?”
SIUE Gospel Choir concluded the MLK program with two selections.
