One Man’s Day, A Community’s Dream: A Martin Luther King Jr. Day Discussion with the Restorative Listening Project

PORTLAND, OR – Come celebrate and discuss the selected works of Martin Luther King Jr. on his national service day. The Restorative Listening Project is pairing with AmeriCorps members to create a Martin Luther King Jr. discussion series entitled "One Man's Day, A Community's Dream." Beginning on Monday, January 19th and concluding Tuesday, February 4th community members will read and participate in focused discussions on Dr. King’s work and selected other relevant authors.

At 7pm, on the 19th we will focus our discussion on race in America. Participants should come prepared having read: Dr. King’s "I Have A Dream" and "A Realistic Look at the Question of Progress in the Area of Race Relations," and Barack Obama’s “A More Perfect Union.” On the second evening we will focus our discussion on non-violent civil disobedience, and will read: Dr. King’s "The Birth of a New Nation", "A Letter From a Birmingham Jail" and Henry Thoreau's "On Civil Disobedience."

The Restorative Listening Event is co-sponsoring the discussion. Run by the city’s Office of Neighborhood Involvement, the Restorative Listening Project is based on the principles of Restorative Justice which says that only when those most impacted are heard, acknowledged and efforts have been made to repair the harm can the community be made whole again.

We hope these two meetings will provide people with a space to think about and discuss the larger messages of Dr. King. The discussions will be facilitated by Judith Mowry of the Restorative Listening Project. The project’s work in NE Portland was recently highlighted in the New York Times.

The calendar of events for the 2009 MLK Jr. Discussion is as follows (all events at 7pm):

• January 19th: Discussion Session 1 - Racism in America at: 7pm, AME Zion church: 4304 N Vancouver Ave.
• February 4th: Discussion Session 2 - Non-violent Civil Disobedience at: 6pm, Central Library: 801 S.W. 10th Avenue

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For more information on the series please contact us at MLKdiscussiongrp@gmail.com For more information on The Restorative Listening Project, please visit http://www.portlandonline.com/oni/index.cfm?c=45627 or contact Judith Mowry at Judith.Mowry@ci.portland.or.us.