Fellowship, community at the King Cafe

Cats Den site of King Center “Golden Era Black Art” event

JONATHAN LATIMER, Reporter
October 24, 2022

An emcee introduces the Golden Era of Black Art program at the Cats Den in the Gatton Student Center at the University of Kentucky. The MLK Jr. Center is the main sponsor.
Photo by JONATHAN LATIMER. An emcee introduces the Golden Era of Black Art program at the Cats Den in the Gatton Student Center at the University of Kentucky. The MLK Jr. Center is the main sponsor.

The Golden Age of Black Art King Cafe was a fellowship event hosted by the Martin Luther King Center on Wednesday evening at the Gatton Student Center on campus. It was a event that allowed students to join together with song and dance.

There were multiple performers who had great courage to get on stage and perform karaoke in front of everyone. Even though there was a decent crowd, some might wonder why isn’t more of the University taking a leap to be a apart of the King Café community?

Joel Paul Jr., who is a intern for the Martin Luther King Center at the University of Kentucky spoke about why events like this one are important to the University.

“I’ve been on the campus since 2019, and I have seen the campus change a lot,” Paul said. “It gives a student of any background and no matter what you look like, it gives students a space to be creative. It’s hard to find a community anyway, so this is a great place to breakout.”

He had an idea about what is holding people back from jumping into communities on campus.

“People need to be okay with being uncomfortable. People have an overthinking mindset when they are uncomfortable. If people can become okay with being uncomfortable, it will help them maximize their time at UK.”

The MLK JR Center, located on the second floor of the Gatton Student Center, was first founded in the 1980s. It’s mission is to provide all UK students and in particular Black and Underrepresented Minority students a space and programming on campus.

The Cats Den, a multipurpose performance and presentation space included in the plans for the renovation of the Bill Gatton Student Center, is located in the basement of the student center across from the new Apothecary UK pharmacy.  Former Student Center Director John Herbst and Assistant Director Rob Theakston were two of the student-centered UK administrators who put the Cats Den plan forward.

The MLK center will be hosting more events this Fall 2022 semester very soon. The next event is Wed. Oct. 26 and is called “Let’s Talk: Narrative Therapy.” It will be in the MLK Center office and is open to everyone.