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http:// --> Ashland, Oregon HOME Valley & State Sports Nation & World Opinion/Editorial Classifieds Business Columnists Local Issues Obituaries Weather Archive Revels Etcetera Backpage Hot Topics Most Viewed Forum Photo Galleries Video Readers Polls O-Zone Online Games Movie Preview Special Sections Real Estate Guide Menu Guide Shakespeare Subscribe Contact Us Rate Card Place an Ad Top Galleries: January 13, 2007 State poet to discuss Dr. King on Monday By Robert Plain Ashland Daily Tidings Lawson Inada Martin Luther King Jr., and the holiday he inspired, transcends racial issues, according to Lawson Inada, who will give the keynote address at Ashland's annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration on Monday at noon in the Historic Ashland Armory. "He had a huge influence and effect on the entire nation and the world," Inada, the poet laureate of Oregon and a former Southern Oregon University creative writing professor, said. "We don't necessarily have to think of him in terms of this race or that race." King, who led marches through the segregated south and gave famous speeches in Washington D.C., was instrumental to black people winning greater civil rights in the 1960s. Inada, a Japanese American, went through a different struggle for equality when he was imprisoned for his Japanese heritage for three years during World War II. He won the American book Award in 1994 for poems he wrote about his experiences in the internment camp. "Martin Luther King was a junior high school student in Alabama at the time," Inada said. In 1964, when King became the youngest person to ever win a Nobel Peace Prize, Inada was teaching at the University of New Hampshire and he got to see King speak at a small college in Maine. "You could just tell this guy was for everybody," Inada said, recalling the experience. "He gave people the sense that they could do something about their current condition. He was a conscience." At noon Monday at the Historic Ashland Armory, Inada will deliver the kenote address for Ashland's 19th annual Martin Luther King holiday celebration. He plans to talk about the power of words to move people to action, as well as King's famous words and speeches, and how they "resonate internationally," Inada said. Inada said King was a revolutionary character for more than just black people. His efforts opened doors for many minority groups and disenfranchised people everywhere. "I think peace marches started out of the civil rights movement," Inada said. "All these movements came together when the 60s happened. [King] was a leader of all of them." Inada began teaching at Southern Oregon University in 1966, two years prior to King being assassinated. "By then he had become such a national figure," Inada said, remembering King, and his early days in Ashland. "There is a huge contrast from pre-King to now." The 60s, and Dr. King's influence, came to Ashland several years later, according to Inada. "The 60's came to Ashland in the early 70s," he said, remembering his early days here. "Ashland hadn't become Ashland yet. We had regular stores like JC Penny's, and there were logging mills. It wasn't a tourist town yet." One of Inada's first big projects at SOU, then called Southern Oregon College, was to recruit minority and ethnic students. He said out of these efforts and the growth of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Ashland "became more diversified." As the state's poet laureate, which governor Ted Kulongoski named him in February of 2006, Inada travels all over Oregon giving writing workshops. "What I really like to do is try to convince people that everybody has the poetic spirit in them," he said. "I really like trying to bring out the poet in people." Staff writer Robert Plain can be reached at 482-3456 x. 226 or [email protected] Current Comments: Who gives a sh*t about poetry when these Walker school kids cant read or spell! Marching on Ashland anually is starting to irk me. Can we just let kids be kids at least until middle school, when they can be diagnosed with questionable sexuality. Ashland is moving in the wrong direction. We are creating peace and love with the final product of moronic literacy and less kids making the grade. Are they just bound for the plaza bench? Lets look at the agenda of these people in charge of our kids!!! aqualung - ashland - January 13th, 1:38 PM speaking of MLK, did anyone notice Ashland High School spelled Luther wrong on their board facing the street? What a fine acedemic institution heather - ashland,oregon - January 14th, 9:43 PM Leave a Comment: Advertisement: Advertisement: Paid Advertising: Debt Help Inkjet Printers Student Loans Water Filter Helzberg Diamonds Mortgage Calculator Security Systems Debt Relief Advertisement: Copyright © 2007 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers. All Rights Reserved. Del.icio.us