Lawrence University music professor John Holiday and students from his voice studio performed to a full house Thursday in the Pusey Room in Warch Campus Center, the latest installment of Justice, Peace, & Righteousness, a teach-in series inspired by the work and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. See photos from the performance here.
Holiday, a countertenor in the Conservatory who has been honored as a leading voice in the opera world and who has transcended genres since gaining national attention on NBC’s The Voice in 2020, presented a recital of classical vocal works and songs inspired by the words, life, and times of King.
The multi-week teach-in series debuted this month as an expansion of Lawrence’s MLK Day celebration. It included a Jan. 10 presentation by Elliot Ratzman on King’s collaborations with American Jews and a Jan. 18 talk by Dr. Sigma Colón, assistant professor of environmental and ethnic studies at Lawrence, on cross-racial alliances.
The final installment of the series comes at 7 p.m. Feb. 1 when Dr. Stephanie P. Jones will present, Where Do We Go from Here? Ending Curriculum Violence and Antiblackness in Schools, in Warch Campus Cinema. This will be Lawrence’s second annual “Community Conversation.” The lecture will cover the historical context and definitions of racialized trauma and curriculum violence in the classroom. It aims to help students and educators rethink, recognize, and dismantle these acts in their classrooms, curriculum, and pedagogies. Jones is an assistant professor of education at Grinnell College and is the founder of Mapping Racial Trauma in Schools.
Ed Berthiaume
Ed Berthiaume is director of public information at Lawrence University.