Centralight

Actor Dann nyy GGlover Danny Glover Up close with… in January for Martin Luther King Jr. Week. He and fellow actor Felix Justice performed "A Night with Martin and Langston," delivering the words of Martin Luther King Jr. and the poetry of Langston Hughes. er vvis t d c mpu siti ed campus Glover and Justice perform their show primarily on college campuses across the country to bring to life the words and views of two men whom today's students only learn about as historical fi gures. Glover is best known for starring in the "Lethal Weapon" series and "The Color Purple." He regards himself as a citizen artist and was executive producer for "Soundtrack for a Revolution," a documentary about the civil rights movement. Glover is a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and a recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from Amnesty International. Are you more of an actor or more of an activist, and do you diff erentiate the two? If I was to prioritize what I am, fi rst at the very top is that I'm a father and a grandfather. Then a husband, thirdly a citizen and next an artist. What nsp res y u What iinspiires you tto speak abak about injustice? I take seriously my role as citizen. I'm a child of the civil rights movement. I watched men and women take courageous stands. That transitioned into my activity as a student and then transitioned into my activity working in community development. Watching men and women become the architects of their own rescue has been a part of my acculturation. Every time we speak out against injustice, and every time we speak what we think in a democracy and mobilize around it, it expands the idea of democracy. I believe the civil rights movement expanded the body of politics – expanded the whole context of democracy. And I believe to save this planet, it's going to take more real democracy, not less democracy. It's going to take more participatory democracy, not less. How has your commercial success helped you pursue your personal interests? What my commercial success does is it gives me access to an audience. We use that access to bring our own sense of cultural production. This is not a Hollywood venture. This is simply us believing that there's something important in history and something important in the words of these two men and disseminating that and expressing that and giving voice to that. How do you believe Martin Luther King Jr. would have responded to today's wars? King warned of the triplets of racism, extreme materialism and militarism. He was all about saving the soul of the country. • centralight summer '10 5 PHOTO BY PEGGY BRISBANE

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