SLCC hosts Martin Luther King Jr. Events

Award-winning author Sharon Ewell Foster and educator and musician Dennis Slaughter will headline Salt Lake Community College’s 2014 Martin Luther King Jr. commemorative events later this month.

Ms. Foster and Dr. Slaughter will take part in a panel discussion at noon on January 29 in the Oak Room of the Student Center on the College’s Taylorsville Redwood Campus, 4600 South Redwood Road.

Panel moderator Dr. John McCormick, dean of the SLCC School of Humanities and Social Sciences, said while borrowing from King’s famous 1967 “A Time To Break Silence” speech at New York City’s Riverside Church, “We’re delighted to have Ms. Foster and Dr. Slaughter come here and participate with us as we honor the life of Dr. King and his vision, which was a society free from racism, militarism and poverty.”

This year on January 29 during a reception at the Taylorsville Redwood Campus the SLCC Martin Luther King Celebration Committee is honoring three people with its 2014 MLK Humanitarian Award: Charlene Lui, director of Educational Equality for Granite School District; Dr. Joshua Gold, SLCC Political Science associate professor; and Joy Tlou, SLCC director of public relations.

Ms. Foster will also visit students in classes on January 28 and 30. Dr. Slaughter will join the George Brown Jazz Ensemble and several vocalists for the “Remembering MLK Through Story & Song” concert January 30, 7:30 p.m., in the multipurpose room at South City Campus, 1575 South State Street, Salt Lake City.

Ms. Foster has been awarded the NAACP Book of the Year and the Black Writers Alliance Golden Pen. She also won the 2012 Michael Shaara Prize for excellence in Civil War fiction for her novel, The Resurrection of Nat Turner. Dr. Slaughter is currently an organizational specialist with the National Education Association and the artistic director for the Boston Community Choir.