Students of color celebrate MLK, identities with speeches, poetry

At an event Wednesday night, students commemorated Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy by delivering speeches that alluded to King’s final speech.

UCLA Residential Life, the Afrikan Student Union and Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. hosted the 30th Annual MLK Oratorical Competition to kick off Black History month. The event featured seven student speakers who were evaluated by three judges, including Youlonda Copeland-Morgan, UCLA’s vice provost for enrollment management.

The prompt for this year’s competition was “What is your mountaintop?” which was based on King’s “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech. In the speech, King addressed the necessity of unity and also called on the United States to live up to its ideals. Amanda Finzi-Smith, chair of the committee that planned the event, said the pinnacle of the mountaintop is a metaphor for achieving a goal.

“It’s a speech specifically referencing the pinnacle of what we can reach,” she said. “It could mean becoming either a president or a doctor for one individual, or no racism or gender bias for a society.”

Alpha Phi Alpha, an African-American fraternity, started the event with a percussive dance performance called stepping. The dancers created rhythms by stomping their feet on the floor in synchrony.

Hosts at the event also moderated an interactive question-and-answer session with the audience members about the various ways they learned about their African-American heritage.

One audience member said she learned more about African-American history from her family than from her high school history classes.

“It was the people outside of school that educated me,” she said.

Finzi-Smith said the event was initially intended to give students of color a chance to participate in speech and debate, but the contest now mainly features poetry and spoken word.

Kosi Ogbuli, a second-year neuroscience and political science student and one of the speakers at the event, gave a speech saying he thinks individuals should focus on maintaining their achievements once they attain their goals instead of just thinking about working toward a goal.

“We talk about times in history prior when we’ve reached the mountaintop and failed to create true and lasting change once we’ve been there,” he said.

Ogbuli said his friends encouraged him to participate in the event to help him practice his public speaking. He added participating allowed him to embrace his culture and identity.

“I thought for me, personally, what a better way to embrace the totality of my Blackness than expressing it this sort of setting?” he said.

Paulette Orhii, a second-year human biology and society student, said she attended the event because she went to it last year and enjoyed it.

“I came because I attended this event last year and I remember just feeling so inspired and empowered by what everybody had to say,” she said.

DaMonte Jones, a third-year anthropology student, member of Alpha Phi Alpha and one of the hosts for the event, said he thinks the event helps students learn more about Black history.

“There are a lot of misconceptions about Black history,” Jones said. “Coming to events like this is a chance to participate and learn new things when it comes to Black history.”