On Feb. 5, Oswego State welcomed “Us” and “Black Panther” actor Winston Duke as the keynote speaker for its 31st annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. celebration. 

The evening began with Lauren Robinson, a senior at Oswego State and Alpha Phi Alpha Inc. president, giving audience members a brief overview of the history of the annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration on campus. Robinson credited former residence life and housing employee Tony Henderson as one of the individuals who started the celebration.

After Robinson, another student, Jayvana Perez, introduced the Oswego State Singers and faculty advisor Mihoko Tsutsumi. The State Singers performed the song “Ask the Watchmen.”

The next student to the stage was Student Association President Takeena Strachan, who gave a brief address to the audience. 

“Tonight, we celebrate the visions Dr. King had dreamt of for our nation. Let what you experience here in this room tonight leave you feeling encouraged, empowered, and relentless as we continue to fight against injustice,” Strachan said.

Her speech led into student Iyuhna Callands introducing the Oswego State Gospel Choir, who performed for their first song. 

“It was great to sing and to honor Martin Luther King Jr. because he had fought for civil rights and wanted to make the world a better place,” Jennifer Saint Fleur, an Oswego State sophomore and Gospel Choir member, said. “Winston Duke and I spoke, and I asked him, ‘As a young actor as myself, what advice can you give me for someone who pursues doing both theater and film? What is it like?’ He told me there is so much energy on stage, you are feeding off the energy of the audience and if you believe in success, you are successful.”

Following the gospel choir’s performance was a group of five students, who recited Dr. King’s “Letter From a Birmingham Jail.” The gospel choir returned after their performance to sing one last time, before Oswego State student and gospel choir member Kamal Morales sang “Lift Every Voice and Sing” as a solo.

At that point in time, Oswego State theater professor and event host Mya Brown began introducing Duke. 

“With his newfound fame, Duke is using his voice to advocate for inclusion and gender equity,” Brown said.

Duke began telling the audience about his childhood. He spoke about being born in Trinidad, and how his childhood was a “place of magic.” Duke dove into how he grew up hearing stories and folklore growing up, and how that caused him to want to tell those stories later in life.

Duke credited the start of his acting career to a teacher he has at Brighton High School in Rochester, New York. He said that  teacher encouraged him to try acting, since he was shy growing up. It was during a Spanish presentation, according to Duke, that his teacher realized that he “came alive [in] front of people.”

However, he chose to seriously study acting his sophomore year of college after changing his major multiple times.

“I believed in myself, and I just kept searching,” he said.

When reflecting on his career, he mentioned how he realized he was not in control of how others perceived him, due to his looks and race. He discussed being sexualized after being in Black Panther, and how he realized, “You should never be seen as one thing.” 

After speaking on that topic, Brown asked Duke what he thought about what chaos or community means in today’s global climate, which echoed the event theme. Duke took that opportunity to speak on the internet, which gives individuals a lot of power, and connects people “like nothing else.” He noted that social media gives users an opportunity to define themselves and their own image and voice, and how anybody can get their opinions and thoughts out into the world with all of the technology we have now. He said that not taking advantage of all the internet provides could lead to chaos in the community. 

He then went on to talk about community further, and how it is up to this generation to focus on “self-care” and fixing what is on the inside, rather than focusing on the outside. He added that generations past worked on changing the outsides of community, but never focused on themselves and self-love and self-definition.

Brown then asked Duke how he thought Dr. King would react to society today, to which he said he would think a lot has changed. He did say that he thought Dr. King would be disappointed with how his message has been “misappropriated to serve commercial aspects and corporations.” But, he also said how we need to “recognize progress” and “freedoms others didn’t have” while considering whether or not our society has changed. He finished by saying he thought Dr. King would have wanted more, and said he tries to focus on changing narratives and the depiction of black masculinity in the films he acts in, as well as self-love and self-definition.

“If you’re not the one in control of that definition, you have to take that back,” he said. 

He said he did not learn self-worth and self-value as a child, but rather, an adult. When he looks at a script now, he asks himself what his personal narrative could bring to it. To give an example, Duke spoke of his upcoming film, “Nine Days,” where he plays Will, who interviews spirits for the opportunity to be born, before picking one. In this case, he asked himself, “What would my body lend to the conversation of this script?” He said that with him in this role, it will look into black mental health and black psychology, and “detail that mental health has no face.”

The evening ended with students being able to ask questions to Duke, with him giving answers and advice to students on how to succeed in their endeavors.

“You don’t have to be successful tomorrow,” he said. “You’re successful now.”

Photo by Nsikak Ekong | The Oswegonian