Critically-acclaimed play well received by Union community

by | Feb 2, 2007 | Chapter Corner, College Days, Featuring Pi Pi Brothers |

Critically-acclaimed play well received by Union community – 02/08/2007 Author: Jasmine Maldonado Featured Brother: Muhammad Djata “On Monday, February 5, U-Program brought the critically- acclaimed play, “”The Meeting,”” by Jeff Stetson, to the Nott Memorial at Union College.  The play generated quite a successful turnout, with an audience of about 50 students, faculty, and members of the general public.  Muhammad Djata of U-Program booked the play under the advice of Kerrie Wolf and also because he “”felt it was fitting, considering the events on campus this past spring and fall”” and viewed the play as “”U-Program’s way of contributing to awareness and eliminating apathy.”” The award-winning play explores the possibilities of a secret meeting between the two civil rights leaders.  It takes place in Malcolm X’s closely guarded Harlem hotel room on February 14, 1965, a week before his imminent assassination.  Malcolm X invites Martin Luther King Jr. to meet with him, King accepts, and the two leaders discuss their political, philosophical, and religious views in relation to the civil rights movement. The play wittingly expresses the dynamics of the leaders’ differing views. Malcolm X, a city man from Harlem and a converted Muslim, hoped to diminish self-hate amongst African-Americans, and, although not in favor of a violent movement, encouraged self-defense violence when necessary.  King, a Christian country boy from Birmingham, Alabama, led a non-violent effort for integration, inspired by Gandhi and Christian values.  Although the two have strong convictions, they come to an understanding of one another as men of faith, fathers, husbands, and leaders. The ultimate comradery between the two leaders seemed unlikely to Abigail Pleeter, ’10,...