Mary Mary, Glover Headline 2018 Realizing the Dream Events

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Mary Mary, the Gospel recording and Grammy award-winning sister duo of Erica and Tina Campbell, will be the featured performers for the 2018 Realizing the Dream Concert Sunday, Jan. 14, at 7:30 p.m. at The University of Alabama’s Moody Music Concert Hall.

Actor, producer and humanitarian Danny Glover will be the Legacy Awards Banquet speaker. The banquet will take place Friday, Jan. 12, at 6:30 p.m. in the Bryant Conference Center’s Sellers Auditorium, also on campus.

Realizing the Dream Through Service to Others will be the theme for this year’s events, hosted by UA, Stillman College, Shelton State Community College and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, celebrating the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

The Campbell sisters broke through in 2000 as Mary Mary with the pioneering hit “Shackles (Praise You).” Mary Mary has earned multiple Dove Awards, Grammy Awards and NAACP Image Awards and two American Music Awards. After seven albums and almost two decades of singing professionally, Mary Mary has sold more than five million albums. Both sisters have launched successful solo careers while continuing to perform as Mary Mary.

Glover has been a commanding presence on screen, stage and television for more than a quarter century. He holds a lengthy list of performance credits, including the blockbuster “Lethal Weapon” franchise and the Oscar-nominated “Dreamgirls,” and earned an Emmy nomination for his performance in the title role of the HBO movie “Mandela.”

In 2005 he co-founded the New York-based Louverture Films, which is dedicated to the development and production of films of historical relevance, social purpose, commercial value and artistic integrity. Glover’s wide-reaching community activism and philanthropic efforts focus on economic justice, access to healthcare and education programs.

At the Legacy Banquet, Rev. Frank Dukes will receive the Mountaintop Award, Dr. Ellen Griffith Spears will receive the Call to Conscience Award and UA student Marissa Navarro will receive the Horizon Award.

Dukes created and led the Selective Buying Campaign of 1962, co-led the Easter Sunday March of 1963, worked with and served as a bodyguard for King during his time in Birmingham and acted as the director of alumni affairs at his alma mater, Miles College. After leaving Miles, Dukes became the second black hired as a counselor for the Alabama State Department of Education – Vocational Rehabilitation Division. Dukes volunteers as a counselor and black history instructor at Birmingham’s Maranathan Academy, a nonprofit school specializing in critically at-risk youth.

Spears, an associate professor in UA’s department of American Studies and New College, is the author of “Baptized in PCBs: Race, Pollution, and Justice in an All-American Town.” The book recounts the legal fight that began in Anniston during the 1990s against Monsanto over the dumping of toxic chemicals in the city’s historical African American and white working-class west side, as well as the campaign to safely eliminate chemical weaponry secretively stockpiled near Anniston during the Cold War. The book received multiple awards. Spears is co-author of Alabama House Joint Resolution 20, which exonerates the Scottsboro Boys of any wrongdoing.

Navarro, a junior Spanish and international studies double major, demonstrated a commitment to the promotion of cultural diversity and to resolving the challenges of inclusion and equity on campus early in her college career when, as a freshman, she founded the Hispanic-Latino Association. She served as an SGA senator during her sophomore year and has worked to give voice to marginalized students.

The SCLC, a Realizing the Dream partner, will sponsor Unity Day activities beginning at 7 a.m. Jan. 15, with the Unity Breakfast at Beulah Baptist Church. Dr. Joseph Scrivner, pastor at Brown Memorial Presbyterian Church, will be the speaker. The Unity Day march begins at noon from the Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School and Beulah Baptist Church. Rev. Tyshawn Gardner, SCLC president and pastor of Plum Grove Baptist Church, is the speaker. The annual Mass Rally begins at 6 p.m. at First African Baptist Church. The speaker will be bishop L. Spenser Smith, pastor of Impact Nation.

Concert tickets are $15. Legacy Banquet tickets are $25 for individuals or $200 for a table of 10. Dress is semiformal. Tickets for both events will go on sale through the Moody Music Building Music Services Office Jan. 3.

Music Services Office hours are 8 a.m. to noon Monday through Friday; phone 205-348-7111.

For more information about Realizing the Dream activities and events, visit the website at http://www.realizingthedream.ua.edu, or contact Carol Agomo at 205-348-7405 or email community.affairs@ua.edu.