When we reflect on King’s legacy on social justice and community organizing, “radical love” is at the core of his work. “Radical Love” can be thought of as the ability to …… In a similar vein, bell hooks in her article “Love as a Practice of Freedom” states “without love, our efforts to liberate ourselves and our world community from oppression and exploitation are doomed.”  She speaks to the “ethic of love” that centers our collective work, solidarity movements, and transformational practices and actions of worldbuilding.  This week we invite campus partners to put your “love ethic” in action on NC State’s campus by practicing rest as revolution, self and collective care, volunteerism and community service.

“Our goal is to create a beloved community and this will require a qualitative change in our souls as well as a quantitative change in our lives.” –MLK 

Martin Luther King coined the term “beloved community” to charge us with a new vision of justice.  King’s concept of the “beloved community” challenges us to envision a justice that is rooted in nonviolence, transformative, and restorative.  This week, we reflect on these principles by asking key similar questions “Who are we in community with?”  “How does our social justice work lead to reconciliation?” And “what are we building, and for what purpose?”  This week we challenge the NC State Campus to intentionally build relationships by making connections outside of their comfort zone; and foster connections in new spaces at events across campus.

Being a person of color is often an exhausting and humbling experience filled with pain and adversity. Honoring our ancestors can make our daily experiences easier. By remembering the lives of our ancestors, we can mentally experience their journey and gain an appreciation for our own lives. Our ancestors lived, thrived, loved, and suffered before we did, and their accomplishments and sufferings impact our lives today. If it were not for them, we would not be.  As we remember Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. this week, we encourage the NC State campus community to honor their ancestors and take time to remember those that came before you. We seek to celebrate our ancestors that have paved the way for us to be where we are today, and honor them by being a positive force in our communities.