Please choose from one of the following three themes. Resource links are provided below each theme for further information.

1. Hopes and Dreams for Black Students: Investing in Repairing Historical Harm

• OUSD Reparations
• We are the Dream Lesson

2. "We have inherited a large house, a great 'world house' in which we have to live together [...] because we can never again live apart, [we] must learn somehow to live with each other in peace."

• Stanford University: World House Project  

3. The vote is the most powerful instrument ever devised by human beings for breaking down injustice and destroying the terrible walls which imprison people because they are different from others. 

• Facing History & Ourselves 
• Learning for Justice / Teaching for Tolerance
• Zinn Education Project

More than four decades ago, the Founder of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Oratorical Fest, Donald Oliver had a vision. He wanted to showcase student’s oratorical skills and he wanted to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  He felt that the testing/reading score data did not truly lift up students’ comprehension and fluency skills and abilities but he knew that delivering an oration was an academic exercise that required students to read and comprehend complex text in order to analyze, synthesize, interpret, critique, and present or perform that text (creating a new form through performance) in a competition in public speaking.

This brings us to 2022 and the 43rd Annual OUSD Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Oratorical Festival in which schools at all grade levels across Oakland have an opportunity to bring Donald Oliver's vision to their students. Below you find information about grade level divisions and the oratorical festival catagories. 

Grade Level Divisions:

• Pre-Kindergarten-2nd grade
• 3rd-5th grade
• 6th-8th grade
• 9th-12th grade

Categories:

• Individual Performer – 1 Performer on Stage
• Monologue - original or published in a script (3 min)
• Poetry - published poetry (3 min)
• Poetry - original poetry (poet performing poem they wrote, 3 min)
• Speech - famous & not so famous – (3 min)
• Two or More Performers on Stage Groups/Scenes
• Poetry – published (up to 5 min)
• Poetry - original (written by the performing poets, (up to 5 min)
• Speech - famous & not so famous (up to 5 min)
• Scene - published & devised (up to 5 min)

Please see Divisions and Categories Information Details for number of entries allowed per school.

We Are The Dream: Public Speaking Lesson

Awele (ah WAY lay) Makeba 

Producer, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Oratorical Fest

Cell | 510-601-0178 cell

Skyline | 510-482-7109, Ext. 204