Exhibition and Events – no charge
Saturday, January 19th, 2 pm – 5 pm
Sunday, January 20th and Monday, January 21st (MLK Day), 10 am – 5 pm
Tuesday, January 22nd, 10 am – 4 pm

University of Arizona Student Union Memorial Center – Tucson and Catalina Rooms (upstairs)

We, the youth of SGI-USA, the Soka Gakkai International organization in Tucson, in partnership with Buddhists for Peace student club at the University of Arizona, are presenting the “Victory Over Violence” Exhibition at the University of Arizona Student Memorial Union (upstairs) on January 19-22, 2013.

Victory Over Violence (VOV) is a movement to help inspire young people throughout the world to identify and root out violence in their daily lives and in their communities.

VOV is inspired by universal principles of nonviolence and respect for all living beings. Its goal is to contribute to a culture of peace through awareness, introspection, individual empowerment and a courageous and creative commitment to dialogue. It encourages respect, trust, and friendship among young people, families, schools and communities across boundaries such as race, religion, and culture.

The VOV movement begins with you. Starting on the personal level, we will collectively build a culture of peace worldwide.

Join us at this event and launch your
personal peace movement today!

Keynote Speaker
Saturday, January 19 2:15pm

Dr. Richard Ruiz – Department Head, Professor, Department of Learning and Sociocultural Studies, the University of Arizona
“Creating a Language of Peace and Reconciliation in the United States”

Special Guest Speakers
Sunday, January 20 10:00am

Dr. Sheri Bauman, Director, UofA Counseling & Mental Health Graduate Program
“What can we do to Stop Bullying and Cyberbullying?”

Sunday, January 20 1:00pm

Mitzi Sasse, Yoga & Qi Gong Instructor
“Qi Gong, A Practice to Reduce the Accumulation of
Negative Emotions and Recharge the Meridian Channels”

Sunday, January 20 2:00pm

Linda Kohanov – Founder/Director of the EponaQuest International Study Center, author of “The Power of the Herd” – a guide to non-predatory leadership.
“Emotional Heroism: The Power behind Nonviolence”

Monday, January 21 11:00am (MLK Day)

Anna Harper, MSW, LMSW – Director of Program and Community Development at Emerge! Center Against Domestic Abuse.
“The Impact of Domestic Abuse – Working Toward Community Accountability”

Monday, January 21 1:00pm

Sarah Bahnson & Paco Velez, Wingspan, Advocate/Educators
“LGBT 101”

Monday, January 21 2:00pm

Dr. Stephen T. Russell – Distinguished Professor, University of Arizona; Director, Frances McClelland Institute for Children, Youth, and Families; President, Society for Research on Adolescence
“The Silence around Violence: Prejudice, Discrimination and Bullying and What We Can Do about Them”

Monday, January 21 3:30pm

Dr. Patrisia Gonzales, UA American Indian Studies, Mexican American Studies
“Indigenous Medicine and Oneness of Self and the Environment”

Tuesday, January 22 11:00am

Dr. Ofelia Zepeda – Tohono O’odham poet; Professor of linguistics, University of Arizona
“Understanding the Power of Words”

Tuesday, January 22 12:30pm

Meghan McKendry, UA Oasis, Student Health, Prevention Specialist
“Combating Sexual Assault and Relationship Violence at the UofA”

No Charge for the Event. Free Parking Saturday, Sunday and Monday.
Come Early – Seating is limited

Further information: Call 520-323-8184, SGI Community Center
2540 E. 22nd Street, Tucson 85713

Website: www.VOVTucson.com

This year the March is moved to the UA campus and will begin at the MLK Student Center at 1322 E. 1st St. (2nd Street and Mountain) and march to Old Main (east side). Then there will be a celebration from 10 to 3:30 p.m. at the UA Mall.

For more information contact Donna Liggins at 520-237-7806, Dierdra Jones at 520-370-6528, or Clarence Boykins at Clarence540@aol.com.

And please join in this march & celebration to remember a great civil rights leader.

Monday, January 21st at 8:00 a.m.

Free Admission!

TV on the big screen is made possible by Cox Communications.

Tasty and refreshing “Obama-mosas” will be available for sale at the snack bar! Raise a glass as President Obama officially takes office!

This year, celebrate MLK Day by joining together with others in the Tucson community to watch the live simulcast of President Barack Obama’s inauguration, projected on The Loft’s big screen! The official theme for the 2013 inauguration is “Faith in America’s Future,” commemorating the United States’ perseverance and unity, marking the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation! What could be a better reason to get up this early in the morning?

Commemorate this momentous moment AND celebrate the lasting legacy of the great Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. with your fellow Tucsonans as we gather together to usher in the beginning of a new chapter in American history!

January 21, 2013 also happens to be the Martin Luther King Day holiday, so a celebration will be happening over at Old Main on the UA Mall from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. that day. This is a fitting coincidence of America’s first Half African American President’s 2nd inauguration on Martin Luther King Day. From Blog for AZ calendar:

March and Festival, University of Arizona Mall. March will begin at 9:00 a.m. in front of the MLK Center on the corner of 2nd Street and Mountain Avenue. The March will end in front of Old Main (East side). Speeches and entertainment begin at 10:00 a.m. For more information please contact Donna Liggins at (520) 237-7806 or Diedra Jones at (520) 370-6528.

Also at the Loft, a free movie “La Source” at 5 p.m. for MLK Day:

Narrated by Oscar-nominated actor Don Cheadle (Hotel Rwanda), the new documentary La Source tells the uplifting story of Josue Lajuenesse, who grew up in the rural town of La Source, Haiti, where the residents live without plumbing or electricity and must embark on a treacherous hike up a mountain every day in order to obtain clean water. Now working as a janitor at Princeton University by day and a cab driver by night, Lajeunesse is convinced that there must be a better way for his hometown friends and family to live. Together with his carpenter brother Chrismedonne, who still lives in Haiti, Lajeunesse decides to return to his country after the devastating 2010 earthquake and organize an effort to finally bring what is most fundamental to his village’s survival; clean water. This award-winning documentary from director Patrick Shen (Flight from Death: The Quest for Immortality, The Philosopher Kings) is not just a movie about clean water and community transformation; it is a story of one unlikely hero, empowered by a vision, who did whatever it took to ignite the passion of people thousands of miles away to change the lives of those in La Source forever.
In 2011, Josue Lajuenesse was awarded Princeton University’s MLK Day Journey Award, which recognizes efforts to continue the journey to achieve Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision of social change. (Dir. by Patrick Shen, 2012, 71 mins., Transcendental Media) Digital

Good luck Mr. President for another 4 years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King,_Jr

I came across one of his famous quotes recently:

“Cowardice asks the question, ‘Is it safe?’
Expediency asks the question, ‘Is it politic?’
Vanity asks the question, ‘Is it popular?’
But, conscience asks the question, ‘Is it right?’
And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but one must take it because one’s conscience tells one that it is right.”

Today let us reflect about Dr. King’s legacy about what is right to do in political issues, especially this year as we embark upon another Presidential election, redistricting of current maps, civility in public discourse.

And FREE today at the Loft Cinema (3233 E. Speedway) at 5 pm.: “Do the Right Thing” 1989 movie directed by Spike Lee:

http://www.loftcinema.com/node/2766

“DO THE RIGHT THING, Spike Lee’s incendiary (and controversial) look at race relations in America, circa New York City in 1989, is a joyful, tumultuous masterpiece – perhaps one of the best films ever made about race in America, revealing racial prejudices and stereotypes in all their guises and demonstrating how a deadly riot can erupt out of a series of small misunderstandings.
Set on one block in Bedford-Stuyvesant on the hottest day of the summer, the movie showcases the whole spectrum of ethnically-diverse life in this neighborhood, raises the heat to a high boil, and then leaves it up to us to decide if, in the end, anybody actually does the “right thing.” Featuring a stellar cast including Danny Aiello as Sal, the pizza parlor owner; Lee himself as Mookie, the lazy pizza-delivery guy; John Turturro and Richard Edson as Sal’s sons; Lee’s sister Joie as Mookie’s sister Jade; Rosie Perez as Mookie’s girlfriend Tina; Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee as the block elders, Da Mayor and Mother Sister; Giancarlo Esposito as Mookie’s hot-headed friend Buggin’ Out; Bill Nunn as the boom-box toting Radio Raheem; and Samuel L. Jackson as deejay Mister Señor Love Daddy.
Brash, bold and highly entertaining, DO THE RIGHT THING is a rich and nuanced film to watch, treasure, and learn from–over and over again.”

Let us remember Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. today and what he stood (and marched) for.

UPDATE: My comments on the MLK events in Tucson below in comment section.