MATC celebrated the birthday of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with an event titled “Building a Beloved Community at MATC.” The Rev. Nontombi Naomi Tutu served as keynote speaker for the celebration, which included student remarks, poetry reading, musical selections and remarks from MATC President Anthony Cruz, Ed.D., as well as Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson.
Rev. Tutu is the daughter of the late Archbishop Desmond Mpilo Tutu, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and theologian known for his work as an anti-apartheid and human rights activist. Rev. Naomi Tutu is a race and gender justice activist whose professional experience includes working as an economist and development consultant in West Africa, serving as a program coordinator for programs on race and gender-based violence in education at the African Gender Institute at the University of Cape Town, and serving as an instructor at several universities.
MATC hosted this MLK birthday celebration as part of its focus on mattering and belonging, which has been emphasized during recent all-employee meetings. The college chose to specifically lean into the teachings and messages delivered by Dr. King around building a community and society of individuals who treat each other with kindness, consideration and respect.
Rev. Tutu delivered an empowering keynote speech, “Our Shared Humanity: Creating Understanding Through the Principles of MLK.” She combined Dr. King’s dream of the “Beloved Community” with the teachings of the South African proverb Ubuntu, speaking to the need to understand how our actions — or inactions — affect all with whom we come in contact and ourselves.
Rather than focus on what separates us, Rev. Tutu encourages us to focus on our shared humanity to build a just world. Both the “Beloved Community” and the proverb share an underlying theme: the importance of not dehumanizing those with whom we are in conflict, but rather concentrating on what we have the power to change.
(This text was provided by MATC’s Marketing & Communications.)
The MATC Times sent two photographers to this event. You can see the pictures from Photo Editor Cierra Pleshette and Photographer Kiara Lathrop in the photo gallery below.
