REVIEW: LMHR IN NEWCASTLE
Newscastle University Students’ Union recently held a Love Music Hate Racism event in honour of Martin Luther King, who received his Honary doctorate from Newcastle Universtiy 40 years ago this month. Racial Equality Officer Michael Oliver reports on how he made his first LMHR event a success…
Four weeks ago, it was just an idea for my volunteer project. Last few weeks ago, it became reality. I’m talking of course about Love Music Hate Racism @ World Headquarters.This event which was held in honour of Martin Luther King receiving his honorary doctorate from Newcastle University 40 years ago this month.
This was a massive event that challenged me as an individual and as an officer, but I am glad to have taken it up. The event was part of a campaign being run by the Union Society but was assisted by societies including Nuclear Student Radio (NSR) and the Indie Society. Many people were involved with the planning and organisation of the event and we had a team of over 20 volunteers ranging in skills, age and ability, however we all had one thing in common.We wanted to unite as a people to make a stand against racism in all its forms.
The campaign began with the publicity stages of the campaign including a paper based campaign to encourage people to download the free CD from the LMHR website and also to send out a loud and clear message that racism would not be tolerated in this University. This involved members of the team giving out flyers, using the internet, plasma screens and also manning a stand outside the building with an amp to play music as loud as the university would let us. We also used the LMHR flyers which the national campaign sent us to place our own flyers into them and hand them both out at the same time. Genius!
For the event itself we had four local main acts - the Jacks, Le Renaissance, Rebecca Jones and SDF covering all sorts of different music covering from acoustic to rock. At the same time however, we also used the top room in which to hold an all night DJ set with performances from our own NSR and Indie Soc. We were also joined by members of Unite against Fascism who were a great help in spreading awareness of modern events of racism.
After a few drinks and a little bit of a pep talk from a couple of crew members, I took to the DJ booth to make a speech in honour of Martin Luther King’s work and I am happy to say I was joined by members of Northumbria University Students’ Union. This was a great symbol of solidarity between the two Union’s and as a result the event had a massive impact on both campuses. I am hoping to follow this event up with a campaign next year to mark Holocaust Memorial Day and also run another LMHR event.
I would like to say a big thanks to everyone involved including the students, representatives, society members and people who came. Also, massive thanks to Northumbria Union for their part in contribution to the event.
I hope this is event will be a stepping stone to racial justice everywhere and I hope that one day we can live in the world which Martin Luther King dreamed of, where people ‘will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character’.
Michael Oliver
