Students at Midland School got the Blues on Monday to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Byron Laursen, a writer formerly of Rolling Stone and a music enthusiast, gave a presentation on the roots of Blues music. He traced the roots from Africa through the pre-Civil War south and up to modern Hip-Hop.
“The Blues, I don’t think will ever die, they’ll live on in modern music,” said Laursen. The presentation was just one of many given throughout the day at Midland School. Inochi Fukui, a senior from Singapore, was part of a group who read King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. “I realized what a great speech it was. I listen to it every year, but this is the first year I really appreciated it” said Fukui. Miranda Poett, another speech reader, said, “(The speech) is incredible, the words are so powerful.”
The finale to the evening was a dance choreographed to a remix of King’s speech. Even the teachers got in on the fun by joining the students for acrobatic dance moves. “I didn’t expect it to be this fun and moving” said Fukui. Poett added, “It’s cool how much we put into MLK day (when) other schools see it as a day off.”