From 1982, this untitled mixed-media collage by Miriam Shapiro appears in the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College Museum of Art exhibition “Remix: Selections from the International Collage Center.”

ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ presents lectures on an important exhibition of collages and on the role of academics and social justice on Wednesday, Feb. 5.

NOTE TO READERS: The Pavel Zoubok lecture has been postponed. A new date for it will be announced.

Founder and artistic director of the International Collage Center, Pavel Zoubok offers a talk related to the current ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College Museum of Art exhibition Remix: Selections from the International Collage Center at 7 p.m. in Room 104 of the Olin Arts Center, 75 Russell St. For more information, please contact 207-786-6158.

Barbara J. Love, professor emerita of social justice education at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, gives the lecture An Inconvenient Morality: How Members of the Academy Face Issues of Power, Privilege and Social Justice at 7:30 p.m. in the Muskie Archives, 70 Campus Ave.

Both lectures are open to the public at no cost. For more information, please contact 207-786-8272.

Pavel Zoubok

Zoubok is a leading authority on collage in contemporary art. Located in Milton, Pa., the promotes the study and appreciation of collage and provides lending and research materials for arts professionals and collectors.

In 1997, Zoubok opened the Pavel Zoubok Gallery in New York City. The gallery specializes in collage, assemblage and mixed-media installation. The gallery presents modern and contemporary works in an effort to create a cohesive art historical context for collage and related forms, spanning most major art movements of the post-World War II period.

The touring exhibition Remix explores dominant themes in collage — e.g., the relationship between collage and poetry, collage as an extension of painting, and the use of collage in cultural, social and political resistance. The ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ exhibition was curated by the ICC and William Low, curator of the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College Museum of Art.

Barbara Love

Love’s lecture will consider such questions as: Why should educators be concerned with issues of social justice? What are key intersections between morality and a concern with issues of social justice? How can a morally responsible education serve as a tool for liberation?

A speaker, consultant and writer focusing on multicultural organizational development, Love works with educators throughout the U.S., Europe, the Caribbean and Africa. She studies personal, organizational and societal transformation and strategies for liberation.

Love’s talk is the 2013–14 Bertha May Bell Andrews Lecture. Sponsored by the Multifaith Chaplaincy, the Andrews Lecture has been a signature talk at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ since 1975. Honoring the memory of Bertha Andrews, who served on the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ faculty from 1913 to 1917 and established the women’s physical education program, the lecture reflects Andrews’ conviction that education without morality lacks purpose.

In case you think that all the heavy lifting in the cause of social justice is over and done with, the Rev. James Lawson has news for you.

“I am absolutely convinced” that the 21st century will be the time for a social justice movement that overshadows the transformative campaigns of the previous century, Lawson told a ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College audience gathered on Jan. 17 to celebrate the life and work of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

It will be a movement, he proclaimed in his keynote speech, even “greater in its intensity and its power of truth” than the civil rights movement in which he played a key role. In an effort that spans all faiths and targets all prejudices, “we must work for the dismantling of the systems of oppression in the United States,” said who worked closely with King in the 1950s and ’60s.

More King Day coverage:

At ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ for King Day was a second keynote speaker, Asher Kolieboi, who works for equal rights for the lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender-questioning community. The pairing of Lawson and the 20-something Kolieboi symbolized the passing of the social justice torch down through the generations.

Also on hand was Vinie Burrows, the actress and activist, who moderated a discussion and will offer and elsewhere in Maine during the week. A debate and a student performance Monday and a worship service Sunday evening featuring a sermon by Lawson were also in the plan.

Lawson’s keynote provided the right message for a King Day observance meant to spur action. Borrowing its first half from reggae singer Bob Marley and its second half from King, the theme for the day was “Get Up. Stand Up. The Fierce Urgency of Now.”

Listeners also heard much about the roles of Christ and of Gandhi in the philosophy of non-violence as practiced by the keynote speakers.

ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ President Elaine Tuttle Hansen and Dean of Faculty Jill Reich offered opening remarks during the morning keynote session in the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall. Hansen pointed out that ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ — always open to men and women of all races and religions — was distinctively qualified as a place to celebrate and reflect on King’s legacy. Hansen noted that the Jan. 8 massacre in Tucson “reminds us that the world needs the teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King more than ever.”

“We need both Dr. King’s lessons and his persistence. No matter how dire the situation, he said,

Reich enjoined the Olin Arts Center audience of some 250 people to step beyond the ceremony of a single day and turn inspiration into action. “The inspirational words in which we find comfort are not enough,” she said. “We must find ways to live them — not just on special days like this one, but every hour, every minute, day in, day out.”

An elegant figure in a pinstripe suit and Western boots, Lawson wore a wireless microphone so he could pace the Olin stage as he talked. His address — titled, after King’s book, — ranged effortlessly from past to present, from his own story to that of the civil rights movement, and thence to the nagging unmet demands of social justice.

The theme that shaped his talk was the deep imperative he felt from Christ and Gandhi to the exercise of . “You have before you a follower of Jesus who began resisting injustice around the age of 4, 78 years ago,” he said.

After he struck someone who used a racial slur against him, Lawson’s mother forbade further violence and urged that he wield brotherly love instead, “and make it work for every issue in my life, experiment with it, and make it a form of strength instead of weakness.” That was the seed of a lifetime of non-violence that was enriched by Gandhi and bloomed into full flower during the civil rights movement.

Though he rejects any political labels for himself, Lawson was eloquent in cataloging the evils still perpetrated by Western society and the white-male power structure. “The major obstacle to the advancement of the human race in the world today is white Western civilization,” he said, while acknowledging that he is himself a product of that power structure.

Anticipating Kolieboi’s talk several hours later, Lawson didn’t spare a conservative evangelical community that has, he believes, lost sight of Christianity’s essence. “One might ask, why does Christianity put all the weight on ‘Are you saved?’ instead of on doing God’s work on Earth?” he wondered. “It seems to me that the notion of the Kingdom of God is that there is no area of human life that does not benefit from learning the ways of truth and compassion.”

In describing his own work as a co-director of the , which periodically brings young LGBTQ advocates to colleges and universities to advocate for fairness and diversity, (now LGBTQ community coordinator at Oberlin College) paid explicit tribute to Lawson’s gift to American activism of non-violence.

But in contrast to Lawson’s free-ranging review of a life in social activism, Kolieboi hewed closely to the values and operations of the Equality Ride and its parent organization,. Describing the prejudice against the LGBTQ community at some evangelical Christian schools, he admitted that it was an education even for him to discover the harsh consequences suffered by anyone expressing same-sex attraction — expulsion, suspension, loss of financial aid, compulsory “conversion therapy.”

Pointing to racist and homophobic sentiments that still persist even among social activists, Kolieboi echoed Lawson’s call for a social justice movement that would transcend specific communities of interest to strive for equality, justice and freedom for all people.

“We are not single-issue people,” he said. “We can’t talk about LGBTQ rights without talking about access to education, or about healthcare or the prison-industrial complex.”

He ended his address with a maxim from Napoleon Bonaparte: “There are only two forces in the world, the sword and the spirit. In the long run, the sword will always be conquered by the spirit.”

Breakout sessions after each keynote, and finally a late-afternoon plenary session with Lawson and Kolieboi, sought to digest and expand upon the speakers’ thoughts.

led one morning session. The petite actress wielded an outsize personal authority that kept the session moving along despite the group’s initial reticence to speak. She asked the group of about 40 students and Lewiston-Auburn community members how they would respond to the charge to action that Lawson had issued. Like society in miniature, the resulting discussion was a collision between prescriptions for action and descriptions of the obstacles.

In the end, it boiled down to a question simple but profound: Why can’t students make friends outside their familiar circles? An African American student applauded ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½’ efforts to diversify the student body, but said that in spite of growing diversity on campus, the races rarely mix in Commons. “Is it really diversity if it’s not integrated?” she wondered.

The burden is on students, a male student replied. “The point of school is to expand our horizons. People need to challenge themselves.”

About 40 people attended an afternoon breakout moderated by Erica Rand, professor of art and visual culture, and of Brooklyn, N.Y. Focusing on the struggle to expand gay rights and on issues with conservative Christians, the session was sparked up by the contributions of LGBTQ activists from the community.

One of those activists offered cause for optimism, pointing out that despite the considerable prejudice still in place, the LGBTQ cause has been met “with the fastest change in opinion in American history. We are making tremendous progress.”

“We have to thank the civil rights and women’s rights movements,” someone else said. “This is the third time we’ve been through this.”

But the discussion nevertheless returned, inevitably, to the basic need to spark meaningful action.

“It’s hard to create that safe space where people can just be honest” about race, women’s issues and so on, said Alexandre-Brutus. “How can we get people engaged?”

“Maybe do this more than once a year?” another student suggested.

— Additional reporting by Allison Lizars ’11

On the lid of a yogurt cup in Commons, Catherine Elliott ’12 of Edina, Minn., read about a contest that would fund playground upgrades for the organization that collected enough specially marked lids.

“Wow! We have a lot of yogurt lids here,” Elliott thought. “This opportunity exists — what can we do with it?”

What she did was gather 4,500-plus lids, enough to win the $50,000 “Double Play” grant from organic yogurt maker Stonyfield Farm and KaBOOM!, a nonprofit dedicated to bringing play into children’s lives.

Elliott posted fliers and placed collection boxes around campus. Dining Services workers pitched in, collecting lids that came back to the dish room on trays.

Elliott then cleaned the thousands of lids in her dorm. She developed an elaborate system in her room to dry them, involving trash containers in which she layered the washed lids with paper towels to soak up moisture.

“I had a fan that I clipped to my desk and had running 24 hours a day to help air them out,” Elliott says.

The contest actually provided grants for two deserving organizations. Elliott’s partner, the Boys & Girls Club of Auburn-Lewiston, won first prize, $50,000 worth of play-related improvements to the Clubhouse, including renovation of a gym floor. The first-place winners also got to choose a second $50,000 grant recipient: Elliott and Boys & Girls Club unit director Andie Hannon awarded this prize to the PTA at Laurel Elementary School in Laurel, Md.

Elliott, who is organizing her studies around social-justice issues, came to ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ with a track record of community organizing. Giving back, she believes, “is all about the unseen consequences of your actions. You don’t know how far they’ll reach.”

In honor of the witness and legacy of Stringfellow – a lawyer and lay theologian prominent in the American peace movement – the chaplain’s office annually recognizes the achievement of both a ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College student and a Maine citizen whose lives and work have been dedicated to the promotion of peace and justice. Like Stringfellow himself, award winners are distinguished by their courageous and sustained commitment to redressing the systemic, root causes of violence and social injustice and by their dedication to engaging and opposing “the powers and principalities” of this world.

All nominees should have demonstrated commitment to the work of social justice at a systemic level. Nomination letters should include a brief biographical summary of the person nominated as well as a list of the specific ways in which the nominee has demonstrated a commitment to the advancement of justice and peace. Each letter should present complete contact information, including addresses, phone and fax numbers and e-mail addresses, for both the nominators and the nominees.

“Stringfellow ‘s life and work are of inestimable significance to the movements for justice and peace throughout the world,” said ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Chaplain Kerry Maloney. His several books and countless addresses have together formed a significant chapter in the unofficial canon of the American peace movement, informing and guiding such activist leaders as Daniel and Philip Berrigan, Thomas Gumbleton and Dorothy Day. According to Maloney, Stringfellow was “a man who ‘did’ the Word of God, enacting its prophetic charge through his commitment to those who are marginalized.”

The award ceremony, scheduled for Friday, May 3, will feature the Rev. Daniel Berrigan, a close friend of Stringfellow’s.