Milwaukee Area Technical College
Press Release

MATC Hosts MLK Birthday Celebration with Keynote Speaker the Rev. Nontombi Naomi Tutu

 

By - Jan 14th, 2025 11:48 am

On Wednesday, January 15 at 11 a.m., Milwaukee Area Technical College (MATC) proudly celebrates the birthday of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with an event titled “Building a Beloved Community at MATC.” The Rev. Nontombi Naomi Tutu will serve as keynote speaker for the celebration, which will include student remarks, poetry reading, musical selections and remarks from MATC President Anthony Cruz, Ed.D., as well as Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson.

Rev. Tutu is the daughter of the late Archbishop Desmond Mpilo Tutu, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and theologian known for his work as an anti-apartheid and human rights activist. Rev. Naomi Tutu is a race and gender justice activist whose professional experience includes working as an economist and development consultant in West Africa, serving as a program coordinator for programs on race and gender-based violence in education at the African Gender Institute at the University of Cape Town, and serving as an instructor at several universities.

MATC is hosting this MLK birthday celebration as part of its focus on mattering and belonging, which has been emphasized during recent all-employee meetings. The college chose to specifically lean into the teachings and messages delivered by Dr. King around building a community and society of individuals who treat each other with kindness, consideration and respect.

Rev. Tutu will deliver an empowering keynote speech, “Our Shared Humanity: Creating Understanding Through the Principles of MLK.” She will combine Dr. King’s dream of the “Beloved Community” with the teachings of the South African proverb Ubuntu, speaking to the need to understand how our actions — or inactions — affect all with whom we come in contact and ourselves.

Rather than focus on what separates us, Rev. Tutu encourages us to focus on our shared humanity to build a just world. Both the “Beloved Community” and the proverb share an underlying theme: the importance of not dehumanizing those with whom we are in conflict, but rather concentrating on what we have the power to change.

Dr. Cruz will further emphasize the theme from his perspective leading Wisconsin’s largest technical college and one of the most diverse two-year institutions in the Midwest.

“We are honored to host Rev. Tutu, who has vast, real-world experiences as a servant leader seeking to improve humanity,” Dr. Cruz said. “I am committed to building MATC’s caring culture focused on excellence and equity, which means creating a culture where everyone feels a sense of belonging and a collegial environment committed to equity and inclusion for our students and employees.”

The event also features poetry and spoken word, student voices from the college’s affinity groups, and a vocal jazz ensemble from Milwaukee Public SchoolsMilwaukee High School of the Arts.

EVENT DETAILS

WHAT:       Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Birthday Celebration

WHEN:      Wednesday, January 15, 11 a.m.-1 p.m.

WHERE:    MATC Downtown Milwaukee Campus, 700 West State Street, Room M605

WHO:        Mayor Cavalier Johnson

MATC President Dr. Anthony Cruz

The Rev. Naomi Nontombi Tutu

MATC student voices shared via poem and spoken word from:

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.

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