Under the baobab: Community gathers to remember Osagie 6 years after tragic death
Ramadan Mubarak. Kul 'am wa enta bi-khair. Happy Holi. Chag Pesach Sameach.
The usual beautiful people were gathered at Unity Church of Jesus Christ on Thursday for the annual Osaze Osagie Scholarship dinner, 'Heart & Soul: Celebrate Connection, Kindness and Community,' welcomed by senior Pastors Harold and Sherren McKenzie, executive Pastor Ephraim McKenzie and congregation members.
Professors Iyun and Sylvester Osagie, Osaze's parents, greeted supporters with loving hugs as we all recalled with sad fondness their gentle son. State College Mayor Ezra Nanes was the MC.
Attendees included Community & Campus in Unity chair Terry Watson; Dean Clarence Lang from Penn State's College of the Liberal Arts; Professor Jennifer Hamer; State College Borough Council members Gopal Balachandran, Kevin Kassab and Nalini Krishnankutty; Patton Township Supervisor Pamela Robb; school board candidate Jesse Barlow; neighbor Shih-In Ma; NAACP officer Leslie Laing and more.
The gathering honored the memory of Osaze Osagie, who was tragically killed by police at his apartment on March 20, 2019. The officers had come to serve a 302 warrant, which would've allowed them to take Osaze to the emergency room to have a doctor evaluate his mental state and determine if he should be hospitalized. It was the first fatal police shooting in the department's 103-year history.
We are a different community because of what happened to Osaze. Transformed by grief, we now know that catastrophe can happen in Happy Valley. Yet we are made stronger in the realization we can overcome such difficulties if we work together.
Elsewhere around town
Professor Matt Jordan, Bellisario College of Communications, screened 'The Master and Margarita,' directed by Michael Lockshin, at The State Theatre. Based on the novel by Mikhail Bulgakov, the fantasy-drama film addressed speech freedom and censorship. Despite attacks by Russian state news and officials, it became the highest grossing 18+ content film ever released in Russia, earning $27 million. The screening was followed by an insightful discussion with the director Lockshin, Prof. Jordan, Russian Professor Irina Mikaelian and Adrian Wanner, Distinguished Professor of Slavic Languages and Comparative Literature.
Congrats to Penn State sports teams. The men's gymnastics team won the Big Ten regular season championship and now move on to the NCAA tournament in Ann Arbor. The Philly sports news called the PSU wrestling team a 'dynasty.' They advanced all ten wrestlers to the national quarterfinals. The Nittany Lions women's ice hockey team concluded the 2024-25 season with 31 victories, the most in program history. The team's 19 AHA wins set a conference single-season record.
WPSU and the State College Area School District collaborate on their annual Multicultural Children's Festival on Saturday at the State College Area High School from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. The first 750 kids who attend will receive a PBS Kids Passport booklet. The Penn State Traditional American Indian Powwow organized by Professor Emeritus John Sanchez will be held at C3 Sports Complex on March 29-30.
The PSU College of Liberal Arts, Department of Philosophy, Department of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Rock Ethics Institute will present a conference, 'The Dialectics of Freedom: The Critical Theory of Angela Davis,' on Friday, March 28 at 3:30 p.m. in 101 Chambers. Davis, distinguished professor emerita, UC, Santa Cruz, will deliver the keynote, 'We Can Always Hope for Something More: Freedom as the Journey that Never Ends.' The conference continues Saturday, March 29, in Marriott Foundation Building, from 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
And the School of Theatre will present 'Love's Labour's Lost: The Musical' based on Shakespeare's play and adapted by Michael Friedman and Alex Timbers, directed and choreographed by Christine O'Grady with music by Ben Kiley. The musical runs April 1-12. The Center for the Performing Arts will present 'Duck Pond' on Saturday, March 22, at 7:30 p.m. at Eisenhower Auditorium. It is a touching, funny and entertaining tale using dance and music created by Yaron Lifschitz and the Circa Ensemble.
Stay strong.
Charles Dumas is a lifetime political activist, a professor emeritus from Penn State, and was the Democratic Party's nominee for U.S. Congress in 2012. He lives with his partner and wife of 50 years in State College.
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