Herman Hemingway '53 delivered the keynote address at the eighth annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial in honor of MLK Day last night at the Carl J. Shapiro Theater.

The event was co-sponsored by MLK Scholars and Friends, the Division of Student Affairs and the Office of Communications.

Hemingway was the first black man to graduate from Brandeis and was King's Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity brother. According to Associate Dean of Student Life Jamele Adams, who served as host of the program, Hemingway, originally from Roxbury, Mass., became an active member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Youth Council at age 15. Following his time as an undergraduate at Brandeis, he spent four years in the Air Force and attended law school at Suffolk University. He is now a professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Boston and practices law as a public defender. According to Hemingway, he and King met when the former was an undergraduate at Brandeis and the latter a graduate student at Boston University and ordained minister. Reflecting on his time with King, Hemingway said that "his demeanor was always cloaked with great dignity."

King was "a man of great faith and recognized his need to grow and learn more," which led to his pledging the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, Hemingway said.

When Hemingway was growing up, he said, young white boys were able to loudly proclaim that they wanted to be the president of the United States when they grew up, while "I would say in a slightly softer tone, 'president of the United States,'" Hemingway said. This was particularly resonant yesterday, he added, on the day of the second inauguration of President Barack Obama.

Hemingway impressed upon audience members the debt they owe to King and his "legacy of love, dedication and sacrifice" as well as "those whose rights are still being violated in this country."

When King spoke of equality, Hemingway said, "it did include folks who did not look like himself or identify like himself," and he implored the audience to keep this in mind as they work to "act and protect and perfect the dream."

The evening featured a number of performances, including an original poem by Amanda Dryer '13, president of MLK and Friends, which linked the program's theme, "The Duty of a Dream!", with modern-day tragedies, including the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School and the death of Trayvon Martin, further imploring the audience to act upon that duty.

Hip-hop team Kaos Kids and step team So Unique presented a dance performance titled "Uniquely Kaotic" set to an audio track of excerpts from King's "I Have a Dream" speech and Kanye West's song "Power."

Of the collaboration, Kaos Kids events coordinator Shaquan Perkins '13 said in an interview that "it just sends that message-we are a diverse campus and we can work together and just ... make great things together."

"We ... hope to stir inspiration within the audience of what's possible when determination and community are used to link people," said manager of So Unique Katherine Chin '14 in an email to the Justice.

Eliana Light '12, who graduated this past December, delivered an original poetic speech that explored the connection between King and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel-who collaborated with King and participated in several civil rights marches-and the role of Jews in the civil rights movement, tying their narrative in with her own personal experiences of growing up in Memphis, Tenn.

Heschel embodies the Jewish concept of tikkun olam, "repairing the world with action," Light said in an interview. Both King and Heschel, she continued, shared the message of "doing God's will on Earth," and the Jewish connection to the movement stems from the concept that "you shall love the stranger because you were strangers in Egypt." Both men are "symbols of what we stand for when we forget our moral compass," she said in her performance.

Racial Minority Senator and MLK Scholar Amanda Pereira '15 performed a rendition of King's "Loving Your Enemies" speech. She chose the piece, she said in an interview, because she wanted audience members to be able to relate the speech's message to their own lives and also take note that "love is something that transcends time."

Each year, an MLK scholar gives a rendition of a King speech, Adams said in an interview. Pereira is the first women to give the performance.

"There's room for everybody at the table," said Adams in an interview. "This memorial is a celebration of us, all together; it's a celebration of our community."