Lansing - Jothan Callins said he didn’t mind the drive from his hometown of Birmingham, Ala.
“It’s Malcolm X,” he said. “I don’t feel any place on the planet is too far to go in celebration of his life.”
Callins came to visit Lansing to participate in the second annual Malcolm X Community Celebration honoring the civil rights leader’s birthday, May 19.
The celebration takes place this week at various locations in Lansing.
Callins played excerpts from his jazz suite at the kick off ceremony at Walter French Academy, 1900 S. Cedar Street, the celebration’s host, which he composed in honor of Malcolm X and debuted at the Apollo Theatre in New York City in 1967.
“I felt like I knew him,” Callins said. “I was in college at the time Malcolm was at the height of his being known internationally.”
To kick off the celebration, Juma Santos, the nephew of Malcolm X . Santos is a recording and visual artist from New York City.
Chief School Administrator Eugene L. Cain said Santos wanted to make the celebration grand, with drummers, dancers and poets.
“It’s a multimedia presentation,” he said. “He is determined that this will be the crème de la crème.”
As part of the celebration, there will be a potluck Tuesday at the academy for parents of students.
A community symposium also will be held Thursday at 6 p.m. The theme of the symposium will be “Educating All Children - By Any Means Necessary.”
The students also have no school Monday to honor Malcolm X’s birth.
All week long, films about Malcolm X will be shown at the library inside the academy.
The academy for students age preschool through sixth grade is the namesake of Malcolm X, whose full name is El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz.
The school has had ties with Malcolm X’s family members since its implementation seven years ago, Cain said.
“In particular his youngest sister,” he said. “She’s quick to say she is amazed by all we’ve done to recognize her brother in spite of the nonrecognition of the city. We’re just gonna carry on.”
This tribute to Malcolm X has been a longtime coming, Cain said.
“The things he said then ring so true today it’s like he said them this morning,” he said.
Cain and Callins, who grew up together, said the celebration was part of passing on Malcolm X’s legacy to students of the academy.
“We grew up in Civil Rights City, U.S.A.,” Cain said, referring to Birmingham.
“We were able to stay focused and to achieve, but we’ve never lost a sense of heritage.”
Some students of the academy performed dances at the celebration’s kick-off event.
As Davonta Sabbs, a fifth and sixth grade teacher at the academy, pulled the red and black patterned costume over her students, she said she feels the celebration benefits students.
“It gives them the history of their school,” she said. “In addition, it allows them to show their talents and display their knowledge.”
