- Coming up on "American Black Journal," we'll hear about the plans at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History for MLK Day 2025, we'll catch up on the state of racial understanding as we get close to the ninth annual National Day of Racial Healing, and we'll hear from an artist whose work is part of an exhibition that celebrates the life and legacy of author James Baldwin.

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(bright rhythmic music) (bright rhythmic music continues) (bright rhythmic music continues) - Welcome to "American Black Journal," I'm Stephen Henderson.

We're coming up on January 20th, which is the day this year that the nation will celebrate the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. As always, the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History is right at the center of those celebratory activities, here in the city of Detroit.

I talked with Yolanda Jack, she is the manager of community engagement at the Wright, about what's on tap for MLK Day 2025.

Yolanda Jack, always great to see you.

Welcome back to "American Black Journal," and Happy New Year.

- Happy New Year to you.

Thank you so much for havin' me back.

- Yes.

So it is that time of year again, we're comin' up on the Martin Luther King holiday.

I always think of the Wright when I think of that holiday 'cause it's plays such a central role in the way that we celebrate here in Detroit, and of course the museum's mission and its history are just perfectly aligned to help us think about Dr. King on his birthday.

So let's start with what the museum has planned for MLK Day 2025.

- We have a great deal of programming, a great breakfast day.

To start the day off, we will continue with the keynote of LaTosha Brown, a Q and A after that.

And then we will just go on into a full day of thinking about the men and women who have been engaged, not only just Dr. King, but the men and women who worked with him.

The men and women who took up the baton after Dr. King was assassinated, and how the continuation of that work, how the continuation of how we step into that, how the generations later have now taken up the baton and continue justice and equality work.

Thinking about how we are able to find that resilience within ourselves, the resolve to be committed to this kind of work, that we don't give up the spirit or the ghost as it might be for some people to feel like, well, it's over.

No, it's not over.

We still have work to do.

We still have an amazing opportunity to bring this world towards the beloved community that Dr. King talked about.

And so from the breakfast, where we will have the keynote by LaTosha Brown, we'll have a film that's focused on Myrlie and Medgar Evers, and there will be a Q and A with one of their daughters, Reena Evers, who will be here.

And then we'll have engagement in connection to not only the organizations that Dr. King was connected to, A Phi A, the Alphas will be here doing a presentation as well as a step show.

But we're also doing events and activities thinking about how those activities that Dr. King did, like for example the Montgomery bus boycott- - Yes.

- How that was happening, what was the role of the everyday people, and how we have a way to step into that story dramatically but also in a symbolic way of what we're doing today.

What actions, what activities do you engage in that can help keep that work to solidify, and also maintain, and also strengthen what has been done in terms of the foundation of equality work from previous generations.

- Yeah, yeah.

I always think that Detroit of course has a special relationship with Dr. King and his legacy, and that the Wright does a great job I think of highlighting that every year.

- Thank you, thank you.

We continue the day thinking about community engagement.

We're having a way that young people, families can create art and take home a piece of that art.

But the art will be combined together to make one whole thing, but then you walk away from it with that piece.

Just like how you would if we were at a gathering, when we come together and we have a job to do, what piece of that work is ours?

- Yeah.

- And so there's some significance and some symbolism in that.

Later on in the evening, we have the Soul of the Dream, where we'll have presentations and performances by community members, people who have graced our stages previously but also newcomers to our stage, to think about how we can really maintain the spirit and the soul of what Dr. King was thinking about.

And taking it beyond those older generations, the men and women who were our grandmothers and perhaps even great-grandparents, what they did in the '50s and '60s right to today, to 2025, to beyond 2025.

How will we continue, where are our generations, our children's, and even children's children gonna move the needle in terms of equality work.

So really, really, we're thinking about the connection, the legacy, but also our role and our responsibility as it were to keep moving forward.

- Yeah.

Okay, Yolanda Jack, again, always great to see you and great to have you here on "American Black Journal."

And we look forward to MLK Day 2025, at the Charles Wright Museum of African American History.

Thanks for being here with us on "American Black Journal."

- Thank you so much.

- The ninth annual National Day of Racial Healing is gonna take place on January 21st, which is the day after the Martin Luther King holiday.

This annual observance is presented by the W.K.

Kellogg Foundation, and it's an opportunity for organizations all across the country to hold events that celebrate our common humanity.

This is a topic that is at the core of work that's done by New Detroit Incorporated, which was the nation's very first racial equity organization.

I spoke with Marshalle Favors, who is New Detroit's director of community engagement about the importance of this National Day of Racial Healing.

Marshalle favors, always great to see you.

Welcome back to "American Black Journal."

- Thank you so much for havin' me, always great to be here.

- So we're comin' up on the ninth annual National Day of Racial Healing.

Tell me what this is about, and I guess what the concept is here.

Why do we need a National Day of Racial Healing?

- Well first of all, let me say, it's definitely an event that I look forward to every single year, and my organization, New Detroit, looks forward to.

And the W.K.

Kellogg Foundation actually started the National Day of Racial Healing back in 2017.

And it was building on their work for Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation initiative that they have.

And it takes place every Tuesday after Martin Luther King Day.

So this year, it will be January 21st.

I love it because it is a national event, it takes place across the cities across US, on a national and local level.

And local organizations host gatherings and events to basically learn how we celebrate our common humanity.

So that's why it's really important.

- Yeah.

It seems like right now, especially right now maybe, this has a particular resonance.

I think when I talk to people about just the general division in the country, they are more concerned about it, they're more aware about it than they normally are.

But of course, inside that general division are these other kind of inflection points.

And racial division, it seems to me, is kind of flaring up again as yet another way in which we just can't find a lotta common ground as Americans.

- Yeah, absolutely.

And I think that's why this day is just spot on in terms of the timing of it, because it's really a day that we're focusing on unity.

Not the divisions that we have, but finding real safe places to have authentic dialogue about the multiple divisions that we have.

And so, it couldn't come at a better time.

- Yeah, yeah.

So let's talk about the work that New Detroit does.

I'm not sure everybody is always familiar with that work.

Of course, this is an organization that was begun after the '67 Rebellion, here in Detroit.

And its focus, really, is on the idea of bringin' people together.

- Absolutely.

So I know that our work at New Detroit aligns with the National Day of Racial Healing.

We're a racial justice organization, and racial justice and racial healing, they basically go hand in hand.

So our mission is to dismantle racism, and we kinda achieve that by tryna change hearts and minds, policies and systems, in Southeast Michigan.

And if we wanna really envision communities that are free of racism, I think that when individuals feel like valued, and respected, and celebrated, that having events like this is a way for us to have authentic dialogue, build trust with one another, and I think just most importantly, really grapple with the complexity of the history that we have in our country about racism.

And we don't always have a forum to have these dialogues.

- Mm-hmm.

- And so over the years, we've been a part of the National Day of Racial Healing by hosting like town halls, having conversations on race.

And so this is just another extension of what's gonna happen this year.

- Yeah, yeah.

So let's talk about what is happening locally with the National Day of Racial Healing, what New Detroit is gonna be up to that day.

- Well, we are going to participate, well, as participants.

So we are helping to spread the word, get the word out, and really encouraging other people to take part in it as well.

We have had recordings of our past town halls that specifically focus on racial healing, so we're gonna re-air those.

And we're encouraging everyone also to kind of either participate in the local events, because like I said it happens nationally, but locally, there are events happening as well.

And people can sign onto the website in order to learn what's happening locally.

- So you know, I also always feel like it's important to emphasize the reach that each of us as individuals has in this area, right?

I think it can be really frustrating to think about on a national level, for instance, racial division or racism or the things that really divide us or hold us back.

Because any one of us kinda feels like, well, what can I do about that, right?

I'm one person, I'm not in charge of things, I don't have the power to make everything different.

But I always think it's important for all of us to kinda look around our own spaces and in our own lives and kind of identify those places where we do have agency, where we do have say and power.

And all of us do have those spaces.

I mean, it seems like this is a great day for people to take stock of that and think about what you can do differently or who you can reach out to in a way you haven't before that moves toward this idea of better dialogue, better interpersonal relationships, you know, less division among races.

And right here, in Metro Detroit, I think all of us have those things in front of our faces every day, and we don't take advantage of 'em.

- I'm so glad that you brought that up because a lotta times, we look outside ourselves, and as you said, we deal with these big issues and problems that we have, but really looking inward and saying, you know, what can I do to be a part of it?

And one of the things that we can do is having conversation, having dialogue, especially with people who don't look like us, who have different perspectives.

And you can start with your neighbors, your friends, even if you're not attending a big event in an auditorium, things like that.

It starts with the personal.

And I feel like people are looking for more ways to connect better with people and individuals.

And we talk about like the systems, right, systemically, what is going on.

But systems are made up by people, and it has to start with the individual and looking inwardly and saying, what are my perspectives as it relates to our history, our race, my community.

And then looking and saying, what can I do as an individual to help create a more equitable society and to make a difference?

- Yeah, yeah.

Okay.

Marshalle Favors, great work as always at New Detroit, and we look forward to the ninth annual National Day of Racial Healing.

Thanks for bein' with us.

- Thank you for having me.

- And finally today, we wanna remind you that an exhibition celebrating the life of author and civil rights activist, James Baldwin, is at the Charles H. Wright Museum through the end of February.

It's called "Frontline Prophet: James Baldwin."

I spoke last summer with Sabrina Nelson, she is the artist whose work is featured in this exhibit.

Tell me about "Frontline Prophet: James Baldwin," this exhibit at the Wright.

- Well, I can tell you the beginnings of it and how it started.

You know, a lotta people will always ask, "How did you get so obsessed with James Baldwin?"

And I have to respond that I wasn't obsessed with James Baldwin, but I was invited by our Detroit poet laureate, Jessica Care Moore, to travel with her in 2016 to the James Baldwin Conference, at American University of Paris.

I was on the plane with her, Melba Boyd, and Magdalena from U of M, and I just wanted to do as much reading as I could on James Baldwin before I got there, because I knew more about Beauford Delaney, who was his mentor, who's an artist, more so than I knew about James Baldwin.

And so I was invited by Jessica to paint live during her plenary session.

- Hmm.

- So I'd never drawn Baldwin before, and I'd done as much reading, and when I got there and I started drawing his image, I felt something.

Now, I don't know how many people feel things spiritually, but I felt somethin', and my hairs raised on my arms.

And I had never drawn him before.

But I felt like he touched me, he came to me.

And then I asked, after I experienced my poltergeist moment, (laughing) I asked, I said, you know, "If you're here, I need you to teach me how to know you."

- Ah.

- And sometimes, I feel like the spirit has jokes because it went deep and heavy.

And I've learned so many things about James Arthur Baldwin and his life, and his activism, and his artivism as well.

- Yeah.

- This is how it started.

So it started off with small sketchbooks and drawing him during what we normally call Inktober.

I didn't like the word prompts, so I changed it to Blacktober.

And I said, "Who can I draw?"

This is of course after I came back from Paris.

"Who can I draw every day for 31 days?"

Which ended up into 91 days 'cause I didn't stop.

- Wow, wow.

- So that's the beginning of this "Frontline Prophet."

- Yeah.

- And then with Ashara and Omo Misha, who are my co-curators, they came to my studio and said, you know, "Hey, what are you doing with these old sketchbooks, what are they?"

And I said, "Well, I did a study of James Baldwin," and she was like, "What are you doing with them?"

And I said, "Well, they're in my studio," and she says, "We should do a show."

And I'd already talked to a friend of mine, named Mikael Rashid, about it, but I wasn't really sure how I was gonna do it.

And with Ashara suggesting that she'll travel, we've traveled now to six cities, and now after being home, we will go to Paris to make it a full circle.

And so it's been a really amazing journey.

It's been a great journey with Ashara Ekundayo, and also Omo Misha McGlown from Irwin House Gallery, for those listening in Detroit.

- Mm-hmm, yeah.

- Both of these women, all of us are born in Detroit, raised here, and live between Oakland, California and Detroit, or Harlem, New York and Detroit.

- And Detroit.

- Yeah.

So we are all here, and this is how it started, and this is how it sort of spread into the, Ashara named the show by the way, "Frontline Prophet: James Baldwin," that you can see now at the Charles H. Wright Museum, up until February 28th.

- Yeah.

So one of my favorite things about Baldwin is what I'll call complication.

It's not just that his struggle was about being African American and male in a society that didn't value him for that reason, you know, he had struggles on many different fronts.

And I think when we do right by him, we tell that story, we tell the story of those complications, of that nuance.

When you were hearing from him, from this poltergeist, what did he say to you about complication, about that nuance?

- Well, I just felt his spirit, and when I draw him, I feel like I've baptized myself and his image enough to know his eyes, his expressions, his voice.

When I walk in a room and I hear a recording and I hear it's his voice, I'm like, "Whoa," you know?

So I think my job is to reopen a portal, if you will, so that he can reenter in this time.

He's never really left.

And during his physical time here with us, there were no awards given to him.

And there were lots of activists who felt like he was using his platform / star power to just be seen in the moment, but he really was concerned about, you know, what it means to be Black in this country.

Where he would say things like, "I picked the cotton, I built the homes, I tilled the land," and have a country that doesn't think of you as this important being, you know?

And so I think having his visual image and also augmented reality in the museum will allow people who've forgotten who he was, what his words were.

And how he walked and left a very solid footprint here with things that were happening then, back in the '50s, the '60s, and now still happening here, and how we value beings less than we value land.

- Yeah, yeah.

- And so with him dying at 63 years old, and I know he died in 1987, and I was very pregnant with Mario.

- Oh yeah.

(laughing) - And so just thinking about the time that he went through between 1924 and his timeline of 1987, and what he witnessed.

And so when you ask a young person, who may be much younger than Mario, who James Baldwin was or is, sometimes they'll go, "Well, I've heard of him, but I don't really know him."

So I think bringing his image back, celebrating his centennial life, adding the augmented reality will allow them to hear his voice, will allow people to see his face, and think about his political views and him as a poet, who also told the truth about who we were in this country, and how he had to leave this country to go away to find out who he really is or was.

You know, sort of when you're running away, you really are running to find yourself.

- Mmm.

- And you are always with you, no matter where you go.

So I think that journey to Paris gave him enough quietness to find who James Arthur Baldwin was.

And so I think he said to me, maybe not in words, you know, "I'm coming back, I'm coming through your work."

And through the work of these co-curators in this museum, and these journeys that we've had from Harlem to New Orleans, from New Orleans to Oakland, from Oakland to Chicago, and now in Detroit, and then to Paris, how we can hold this frontline prophet up and say, "Hey, he did some work here, and I think we need to revisit his cliff notes 'cause he said some things.

He even told kids in Oakland, "You can beat the president.

Maybe not in this lifetime as history is right now, but within your lifetime, you can be the president of this United States."

- Yeah, yeah.

That's gonna do it for us today.

We always wanna hear from you, so connect with us on social media anytime.

Take care, and we'll see you next time.

(bright rhythmic music) (bright rhythmic music continues) (bright rhythmic music continues) - [Masco Presenter] From Delta faucets to Behr Paint, Masco Corporation is proud to deliver products that enhance the way consumers all over the world experience and enjoy their living spaces.

Masco, serving Michigan communities since 1929.

- [Presenter] Support also provided by the Cynthia and Edsel Ford Fund for Journalism, at Detroit PBS.

- [DTE Presenter] DTE Foundation is a proud sponsor of Detroit PBS.

Among the state's largest foundations committed to Michigan-focused giving, we support organizations that are doing exceptional work in our state.

Learn more, at dtefoundation.com.

- [Presenter] Also brought to you by Nissan Foundation, and viewers like you.

Thank you.

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