Sitting in the Mini-Dome Tuesday, I couldn’t help but notice the dynamics of the crowd packed into the stadium to watch “An Evening with Martin and Langston” performed by Danny Glover and Felix Justice. The performance, which began at 7:30 p.m. on March 27, was well-attended, but the crowd seemed to be roughly equal parts students and non-students. I asked myself the same question I ask myself at nearly every student event: why weren’t more students present?
That is the $64,000 question, considering some of the smaller events on campus (e.g. Maya Angelou, Henry Rollins, Chuck D., Tuesday’s performance by Glover and Justice) are often more worthwhile and enriching than many of our “larger” events. (Remember Everclear and the Goo Goo Dolls? Yeah, neither do I).
A few minutes after 7:30 p.m., the lights dimmed even further in the Mini-Dome and the evening’s main attraction was preceded by a cacophony of introductions and an enjoyable performance by the ETSU Gospel Choir. A few minutes before 8 p.m., Felix Justice took the stage amid cheers from the crowd and thanked ETSU for its warm introduction before launching into a passionate discourse by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
The speech acted by Justice was first spoken on February 25, 1967, slightly more than one year before his death in 1968. Having received numerous death threats, Dr. King had confronted his mortality in a way few people ever will. “You never learn to live your life with all the robust energy God has given you until you overcome the fear of death,” Justice said.
While King’s speech had originally addressed the war in Vietnam, many of Justice’s words rang eerily true in today’s current political climate. “We arrogantly feel that we have everything to teach other nations and nothing to learn from them,” said Justice, his words ringing out through the cavernous Mini-Dome. “We are arrogant in not allowing young nations to go through the same growing pains, turbulence and revolution that characterized our history.”
After Justice’s 30-minute speech, Glover was welcomed to the stage. In his brief introduction to his portion of the program, Glover reflected on the modernity of Dr. King’s words.
“As we embark upon a future of ambivalence, a future of uncertainty, a future where we could possibly destroy ourselves, I am reminded of the clarion call of Dr. King’s words,” Glover said.
Despite being barely audible in the prologue to Langston Hughes’ “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” Glover seemed to come to life while acting and singing out the works of the celebrated poet and activist. Glover performed such works of Hughes as “Aunt Sue’s Stories,” “Mother to Son” and “Hope for Harlem,” pausing between poems to sing a refrain from “The Weary Blues.”
“I’ve got the weary blues, and I can’t be satisfied. I ain’t happy no more, and I wish that I had died,” Glover crooned somberly to a silent and attentive crowd.
During “I Too Sing America,” Glovers’ voice rumbled through the rafters of the Mini-Dome, and Glover closed his performance with a recitation of Hughes’ “Let America Be America Again.”
“Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed . Let my land be a land where liberty is crowned with no false patriotic wreath, but opportunity is real, and life is free, equality is in the air we breathe,” said Glover, exiting from the stage after another slow, somber refrain from “The Weary Blues.”
The performance was followed by a question-and-answer session, during which students asked questions about everything from Glover’s role in “Saw” to the first time Glover and Justice worked together in a small theatre company performing the plays of Athol Fugard. As attendees exited the building, it was clear that “An Evening with Martin and Langston” had been an enlightening, enriching, and enjoyable event for both students and non-students alike.

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