Welcome to the Hallie Q. Brown Community Center, Inc. website.
January 15, 2010
Dear Friends of Hallie Q. Brown:
I would like to thank everyone who made our 80th Anniversary Gala such a rousing success. We had a great turnout with incredible music, great silent auction items and wonderful food. Best of all, fellowship with our community and a great introduction to the New Hallie Q! To see some of the pictures, learn about the 80th Annivesary or order your copy of the 80th Anniversary DVD, please visit our 80th Anniversary page by clicking here.
Now, we turn our attention to a very special day, the anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday. Dr. King is a Civil Rights icon and a great American who helped change the course of history and the tableau of America. He has always held a special place in my heart because he was Class of 1948 from my alma mater, Morehouse College. There is something almost mystical about walking the same steps and sitting in the same desks that great men like Dr. King once sat in at the same age. It was humbling until I asked my uncle, who was Class of 1963, if he ever marched with Dr. King. My uncle, snorted, drew himself up, and stared down at me and said in a gruff voice, "Dr. King marched with US!"
It took me a while to realize what he meant, and things like this get lost in history sometimes, but the Civil Rights movement and the work he did was bigger than him or any other singluar person, it was a movement! Dr. King was just a man like anyone else, working hard to make a difference. He was a brilliant orator and his educational and leadership skills thrust him to the forefront, and he was able to lead the charge, but at the end of the day, he was human. He made a difference because he worked hard and strived for a better world; because he didn't give up when elements of the world stood against him or malicious people tried to tear him down. He fought the good fight without power or force but with love and conviction. He made a difference because he tried and he believed.
It gets lost in the raising of his legacy to the extreme heights that we do that he was like any of us out here, going to school, working hard, raising a family. He worked together with his community from meager beginnings and in doing so was able to move mountains.
As a special event, Hallie will be hosting one of the preliminary Poetry Slams for the annual Brave New Voices International Youth Poetry Slam Competition in partnership with Tish Jones, who organized our November 80th Anniversary Spoken Word event!
The slam is for any young poet between 13 and 19 with a passion for spokenword! Both preliminaries are listed on the flyer (click on it to view a larger image), for info on more, go to www.myspace.com/QuestForTheVoice
