A Northern Michigan high school student is expressing his tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. one pencil stroke at a time. Kwan Choo is an exchange student from Hong Kong, and a gifted artist to boot. The 16 year was asked to create his visual interpretation of Dr. King to be displayed at Monday's musical performance at the State Theatre. Choo spent several weeks reading Dr. King's essays, watching his speeches, and drawing his own conclusions about the man, before actually drawing his portrait.
Kwan says "drawing just make me quiet, like make my noise out of my brain, out of my heart." With every scratch of graphite and every smudge of his thumb, Chow is crafting his tribute to a man who inspires him. Kwan explains "His idea is talking about equality, human beings, that’s what I was thinking, races, and life. I really liked how he could speak his mind for the generation, races, for the country, to the world."
It's a world that this 16 year old exchange student from Hong Kong has seen quite a bit of. A world that he believes is a better place because of the man whose spirit he is capturing on paper. He says "We are still looking at his speech, his ideas, some things he wants to do is not finished yet, that’s why I am interested in his human being, personality, in his story." Kwan studied the civil rights leader, and then expressed Dr. King’s message in a language that is universal. Kwan says "if you don't know English or any language you can just see and capture what I want to be saying. I tell his story in the ring, in the watch; I show his personality in the face and the hands."
It's a story that this young man from across the sea may know better than most teenagers who have spent lifetime actually living under the benefits that Martin Luther King Jr provided for them. It's a story that translates well however it’s told. Kwan says "I can not tell what I am thinking about, what I want to present is in the drawing you can't use words to describe what I want to do."
