Click here to view MLK Day slide show

Singing, poetry and impassioned speech resonated through Thorne Auditorium on Northwestern’s Chicago Campus on Monday for the annual the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration.

Guest speakers Angela Oh, a lawyer and teacher, and Bryonn Bain, an award-winning poet and activist, stressed the importance of facing fear and racism in today’s society. The crowd of about 200 murmured in agreement as they celebrated the enduring memory of King.

Angela Oh has dealt with racial issues throughout her career. In 1997, President Clinton appointed her to serve on a seven-member Advisory Board to the President’s Initiative on Race, but Oh quit three years later because she thought she could make a greater impact elsewhere.

“Someone once said to me, ‘The only reason anyone listens to you is because you’re a partner at a law firm and your name is on the door,”‘ she said. “That makes Angela Oh say, ‘Oh, really?'”

Oh, a Korean American, is not only a speaker on race and gender issues but also a lawyer, activist, martial artist and ordained Zen Buddhist priest. And when she speaks, people listen.

“The issues of racism, bigotry and the sense of superiority based on the color of your skin are not something we just began to address during the lifetime of Dr. King,” she said. “It is embedded deep within the soul of the nation.”

Zen Buddhist teachings shape much of her philosophy, Oh said.

“It is an unfortunate reality that greed, suspicion, doubt, and delusion will guide people in positions of power to make decisions,” she said, expressing her disagreement with President Bush’s foreign policy.

Oh concluded by encouraging the audience to strive to make a difference.

“I’m either stupid or courageous, but I’m unafraid to go into spaces unfamiliar to me,” Oh said. “It’s because I don’t see a person’s appearance, I see his spirit.”

Bain said he would try to honor the spirit of Dr. King through poetry.

“I’m proud to say my creative side survived law school,” joked the Harvard Law School graduate.

Bain has been published in The Village Voice and interviewed on “60 Minutes,” and he has worked as a national speaker.

Swaying, gesturing and playing off the audience’s enthusiasm, Bain performed several of his fast-paced, poignant poems, receiving multiple standing ovations.

Between poems, Bain warned the audience not to forget King’s message.

“We need to honor the man and his spirit in its totality, not just a glorified snapshot,” he said.

“Part of why he was gunned down was because he challenged the fundamental assumptions of what this country was founded upon: liberty, justice, truth — and slavery.”

Bain described the United States as a nation living in fear.

“We never talk about the work of those who terrorize the black community,” he said. “We need to recognize that there is terrorism going on right here within this country.”

The program concluded with the University of Michigan Gospel Chorale’s rendition of “We Shall Overcome.”