Monday, Jan. 21 will feature a multitude of local opportunities to celebrate the life and teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., organized by several local organizations. We've rounded up a handful below:
6:30 a.m.: Citywide MLK Day celebrations kick off with the Unity Breakfast, an annual event hosted by Alpha Beta Lambda to commemorate the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his ideals for peace and unity. Lexington Convention Center. More info here.
10 a.m.: The downtown Freedom March, organized by the University of Kentucky and Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government, kicks off at 10 a.m., but participants are asked to line upstarting at 9 a.m. inside the corridor of Heritage Hall in the Lexington Convention Center on West Main Street. Click here for more information on how to participate.
11 a.m.: This year's Holiday Celebration Commemorative program will feature keynote speaker Daniel Beaty, an actor, poet, singer, composer and author who will present on the topic “Transforming Our Pain to Power.” A graduate from Yale University and the American Conservatory Theater, Beaty has received numerous awards for his original plays and created a nationally recognized social justice initiative. The program will also feature a live performance from the music group Zeb Harrison and the Sounds of Praise. Heritage Hall. More info here.
12:30-2:30 p.m.: The Carnegie Center for Literacy & Learning will host a lunch followed by a series of themed workshops, poetry, music and activism activities geared toward elementary and middle-schoolers. Families will also have an opportunity to engage in a service-learning project. Free and open to the public, no registration necessary. Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning. More info here.
2:30 p.m.: One World Films presents a free screening of the film "Loving." The 2016 Oscar-nominated feature film highlights the true story of interracial couple Richard and Mildred Loving, who married and then spent the next nine years fighting for the right to live as a family in their Virginia hometown during the era of the Civil Rights Movement. Their civil rights case, Loving v. Virginia, went all the way to the Supreme Court, which in 1967 reaffirmed the very foundation of the right to marry. Click here for more info. The Kentucky Theatre.
6 p.m.: The Lyric Theatre and Message Theater are collaborating to present a screening of the movie "The Mountaintop:" a fictional depiction of the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.’s last night on earth, set entirely in Room 306 of the Lorraine Motel on the eve of his assassination in 1968. Doors open at 5 p.m. The Lyric Theatre.