FAEM honors MLK with slam poet, activist

FARMINGTON – An intimate crowd gathered at Old South Congregational Church Monday afternoon to honor the day’s remembered civil right’s activist, Martin Luther King Jr., with prayers, song and inspiring words.

“It’s always a rewarding experience to take a break from day-to-day demands and appreciate life,” speaker Craig Hickman said.

Hickman serves in the Maine House of Representatives as the Democratic representative for the 81st district. Hickman, who resides in Winthrop, said despite a predominately white population, the community has elected him four times now.

“My beloved community elected me- a black man from away- proving that it doesn’t matter what you look like, but what you do,” he said.

Aside from a politician, Hickman was introduced on Monday as a poet, an author, a farmer and a champion of food sovereignty. He was recognized with the Spirit of America Foundation award for community service in 2011 and has historically opened the doors of his bed and breakfast to feed the hungry, free of charge.

The day’s program was put on by the Farmington Area Ecumenical Ministry which includes, along with Old South, Henderson Memorial Baptist Church, First Congregational Church of Wilton, Shorey Chapel UCC, Trinity United Methodist Church, St Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church, Fairbanks Union Church and Farmington Friends Meeting. FAEM works together to benefit programs such as EcuHeat, Housing Assistance Fund, Warming Center and Care and Share Food Closet.

In his keynote address, Hickman commented on the current state of our nation, saying we shouldn’t fear “the fierce energy of now.” He recalled moments in his own history that made him stop and reflect on life- specifically his life as an African American living in the United States- and borrowed from the famous leaders “I Have a Dream” speech to say “Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.”

Hickman, who is also an award-winning slam poet, shared several of his poems with the crowd- words that explore and advocate for justice and equality for all people. Reading from a poem entitled “Field Trip” which tells the story of being singled out and questioned by an art museum security guard, Hickman spoke:

“Empowered by the women around me, I could stay silent no longer. “It’s my purse. Just like hers, hers, and hers.”

The poem goes on to speculate what the security guard thought was in Hickman’s bag- illegal drugs, empty space to steal a painting away in, or perhaps “a big old watermelon, which I’d smash on the floor, scooping out large chunks to smear across the designs displayed on the walls of his big white castle on the hill, leaving behind my own art, my mark, a trail of little black seeds following me out the back door.”

Finally, Hickman shared his own dream through the words of his poem, echoing those of MLK:

“As I moved past this suspecting man, the strap of the bag biting into my shoulder, its contents pulling me down a bit closer to the earth I walk on, I realized the bag I carry around daily is weighted with memories, wishes, dreams and stories yet untold; is weighted with city streets, country roads, highways and rivers to places yet unseen; is weighted with groans, laughter, cries and screams yet unheard.

And deep down, somewhere near the bottom of that big black bag, my purse, there’s a neighborhood, a small town, a city, a country, a world, where no person carries the fear to dare ask what’s inside it.”