RISD MLK Lecture Series Returns with Stacked Panel of Scholars
The Rhode Island School of Design is hosting its annual Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Series keynote event on Wednesday, January 17, at 6 p.m. in the RISD Auditorium in Providence.
Recognition of Dr. King’s life and legacy does not have to be limited to the third Monday of January. The Rhode Island School of Design(RISD) is hosting its annual Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Series keynote event on Wednesday, January 17, from 6–7:30 p.m. in the RISD Auditorium. Titled An Evening of “Art and Justice,” the public event will include a panel discussion featuring architect Gabrielle Bullock, multidisciplinary creative Walter Cruz and scholar/activist Salamishah Tillet, plus a performance by the Prism of Praise Community Gospel Choir. The series acknowledges the life and contributions of Dr. King in creating a more just and democratic society. Programming and events throughout the series offer meaningful moments for service, reflection, self-development, inspiration and celebration. This year, programming will also include the series’ first ever MLK CommuniTea, a tea, coffee and refreshments hour open to all RISD students, faculty and staff in the Washington Place Lobby from 3:30-4:30 p.m. (no registration required).
Over the past decade, the lecture series has had the pleasure of amplifying the voices of different scholars, writers, artists and activists from near and far. As a member of the RISD Board of Trusties, award-winning principal and the Director of Global Diversity at Perkins and Will, Bullock Is a natural selection to participate in the panel. She is regularly sought out nationally for her leadership and expertise in social issues of social equity and architecture, and is known for her role in leading many complex and high-profile projects such as Destination Crenshaw. She is also the recipient of the 2020 AIA Whitney Young Jr. award and the 2022 AIA Los Angeles Gold Medal for her commitment to advancing diversity in the architecture profession. Bullock graduated from RISD in 1984 with degrees in fine arts and architecture, marking her the second African American woman to earn an architecture degree from RISD.
Joining Bullock on stage, Cruz is a New York City-based creative who explores the intersections of art, design and architecture through the lens of his Dominican-American upbringing. His work has been exhibited at venues including the Museum of the City of New York, Center for Political Graphics in Los Angeles, Syracuse University and Longwood Gallery in the Bronx. Cruz is also a visual designer for the Black Alliance for Just Immigration, bringing an artistic eye to social justice issues, as well as the cofounder of Zeal, a Black artist-owned cooperative uplifting multidisciplinary Black talent. Fellow panelist, Tillet, meanwhile, is a professor of Africana Studies and Creative Writing at Rutgers University and a 2022 Pulitzer Prize-winning contributing critic-at-large at the New York Times. She is also the director of Express Newark, a center for socially engaged art and design art at Rutgers, and the author of Sites of Slavery: Citizenship and Racial Democracy in the Post-Civil Rights Imagination along with In Search of The Color Purple: The Story of an American Masterpiece. In 2023, she and her sister founded A Long Walk Home, a nonprofit that empowers young people to use art to end violence against girls and women.
For more information about the series and its speakers, visit risd.edu/news/annual-events/mlk-series.
