The University of South Florida’s annual celebration of the life and values of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. will honor King’s dream and vision with community service, a luncheon and a lecture, with events starting Saturday, Jan. 18.
USF’s Stampede of Service event kicks off the MLK 2020 celebration with hundreds of students volunteering for community service projects at various sites across the Tampa Bay region, including Metropolitan Ministries, Seminole Heights Community Garden and the University Area CDC. Students will experience the power and reward of contributing time and labor to the surrounding community with projects involving cleanup, painting, mulching, kitchen work and more on Saturday, Jan. 18 through Tuesday, Jan. 21.
The theme of this year’s MLK Dedication Luncheon, scheduled for noon on Friday, Jan. 24 in the Marshall Student Center Ballroom, is “Re-imagining the Future.” The event features keynote speaker Fai Howard, assistant dean in the USF Department of Undergraduate Studies, a scholarship presentation and a performance by the Gospel Choir at USF. This program is free and open to the public with a reservation.
The student-run University Lecture Series will close the MLK celebration with Lindsay Peoples Wagner at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 28 in the Marshall Student Center Oval Theater. Wagner is the only Black editor-in-chief at a major U.S. publication, Teen Vogue. Organizers expect her to address the audience about what it’s like to be Black and work in fashion, focusing her message on intersecting style, politics and culture, while providing a fresh perspective on activism. The lecture is free and open to the public on a limited first-come, first-served basis following priority seating for USF students. Doors open approximately 30 minutes before the lecture start time. Real time captioning will be provided; additional reasonable accommodations can be requested by calling 813-974-1001 (FL Relay 711). For more information about the lecture series, including the audience policy, visit the ULS website.
The USF Tampa campus is home to the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Plaza, featuring a bust of King and portions of his famous “I Have a Dream” speech inscribed in granite.