Washington County, Johnson City schools connect to MLK through art

Artwork in remembrance of Martin Luther King Jr. made by Washington County and Johnson City schools covered the walls of the McKinney Center Thursday night. Students remembered MLK and what he stood for through drawings, collages, sculptures and crochet. Brooke Velsor, an art teacher at Liberty Bell Middle School, said that the students can express themselves emotionally through artwork. Velsor said this allows the students to connect to King's story on a deeper level. One of Velsor's students works was titled, "It Starts with Me" and showed five people of different races holding hands around a heart that resembles Earth. Students of Ann Ferenbach, an art teacher at Lake Ridge Elementary School, made a piece that shows footprints walking along a cobbled road. Inside the footprints are quotes from King. She said this piece is in honor of the walk in Selma, Alabama led by King. "The students chose the quote 'we cannot walk alone,'" Ferenbach said. "We wanted to show the unity and the power of not walking alone." Ferenbach said that instead of using the student's sneaker footprints, they chose to sketch footprints of men's dress shoes. "Dr. King was a beautiful dresser … he wore beautiful leather wing tipped shoes," Ferenbach said. "We wanted to represent his … actual footprints." Ferenbach explained why she believes its important and relevant to share the story of King to her students. "I feel like we need him now more than ever," Ferenbach said. "His reasonability, his kindness, his intellect and his powerful words still speak true to all nationalities, all races and all people." Ferenbach said she wants her students to know they don't walk alone, just as their piece says. Velsor said that she feels it is important to teach the history of King because of the positive messages it sends to students. TR Dunn, co-founder of 4thirTEEN, opened the ceremony. Dunn brought the audience back into time with the story of how King got arrested after a peace rally. "He's sitting there just wondering, "how did I get here? I did nothing wrong,'" Dunn said. "'All I want to do is make all people feel important.'" Dunn reminded the audience that all King wanted was unity, peace and equality for all people. He ended his speech by singing "Amazing Grace" followed by applause from the audience.