Monday, January 21: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day! See the bottom of this post for some information about Gandhi and Martin Luther King, and King's own trip to India in 1959!

If you are using today to get started on Week 2, here is that link: Week 2 assignments. (And if you are finishing up some last items from the Orientation week, here's that link: Week 1.)

My schedule today. I'll be putting in a half-day at work today because I'll be away from my office tomorrow afternoon. So, today I'm going to reply to some more of those Introductions, and I'll also reply to any Week 2 project assignments that have come in. If you have any questions about the class, let me know!

The following items are for fun and exploration:

Blog Stream. Here's another beautiful "favorite place" photo; this time it is from Daana's home: Barbados. Beautiful!

Free Book Online. Today's free book is a landmark of modern anthropology: Oral Literature in Africa by Ruth Finnegan.

Free Audiobook. Today's free audiobook is The Song Celestial; Or, Bhagavad-Gita as translated by Edwin Arnold. This English version by Arnold is the first version of the Gita that Gandhi read; for more about Gandhi, see the items below about Martin Luther King and Gandhi.

Featured Storybook. Today's past project is a science fiction mash-up; these are the stories of Alexander the Great, but in this incarnation he is a space explorer: Alexander the Great, Reborn.

Myth Video. Here's another modernization; this time it's the goddess Hera as a modern housewife: The Mundane Goddess. (Yes, that's Uma Thurman!)

India Video. And here's a musical mash-up, where Michael Jackson's Don't Stop meets the Bollywood hit song Chaiyya Chaiyya, featuring Vidya with Sam Tsui, and Shankar Tucker on clarinet. (The Chaiyya Chaiyya song came to Hollywood too; Spike Lee used it for the soundtrack of Inside Man.)

Language. English and the languages of northern India are related, belonging to the Indo-European language family, branches on the same language tree as depicted here by Minna Sundberg:

Together reading and writing turn into language magic, as Carl Sagan explains: Books break the shackles of time. A book is proof that humans are capable of working magic.

Growth Mindset Cats. Even a cat knows you might need to look in a book.

Event on Campus. The Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration Concert with the OU Combined Choirs and the Norman Philharmonic will take place at 3PM in Catlett's Sharp Hall. The event will also feature James Oliverio performing his MLK-inspired “Trumpet Concerto No. 1: World House, Drawn to the Light” (details).

Find out more about this and other events at the Campus Calendar online.

January 21: Martin Luther King, Jr. For those of you in the India class, you might be interested in learning about Martin Luther King's trip to India, prompted by his high regard for Gandhi, whom he called "“the guiding light of our technique of nonviolent social change." You can find out more about Dr. King's trip to India in 1959, and here is a picture of Dr. King and Coretta Scott King arriving in Mumbai:

Here is an NPR report about a special recording: Martin Luther King Recording Found In India (transcript).

Check out the Twitter stream for information and fun stuff during the day, or click here for past announcements.