The life and legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., will be honored all over the city this holiday weekend
Multiple locations
www.mlkday.gov
Observed for the first time in 1986, Martin Luther King Jr. Day has been celebrated on the third Monday in January ever since (except in a handful of states, the last of which didn’t get on board until 2000). In recent years, it has also become known as the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service, offering volunteer opportunities across the country. There will be special events honoring what would have been MLK’s eighty-first birthday all over the city this holiday weekend. Today at the Museum of Jewish Heritage, the annual MLK concert, “The Afro-Semitic Experience presents the Road That Heals the Splintered Soul,” will feature the sounds of both the Jewish and African diaspora ($15, 2:00). SOB’s will honor the day with one of its leading early proponents, poet and musician Gil Scott-Heron, on Sunday night ($25, 7:30).
On Monday, the twenty-fourth annual Brooklyn tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., takes place at BAM, featuring keynote speaker Danny Glover, live performances by the New Life Tabernacle Mass Choir and Kenny Muhammad the Human Orchestra, and a screening of Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman’s documentary SOUNDTRACK FOR A REVOLUTION (free, 10:30 am). The Children’s Museum of Manhattan pays tribute to MLK with several programs on one of its Special Open Mondays, with four Raising Citizens: Make a Difference workshops examining MLK’s legacy and a pair of performances by the Harlem Gospel Choir (free with $10 museum admission, 11:30 am). At Symphony Space, “Artists Celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr.,” sponsored by the JCC in Manhattan, includes the Klezmatics, Daniel Bernard Roumain, and Lemon Andersen, with emcee Celeste Headlee and a keynote address by John Ruskay (free, 6:30). And NYU’s annual MLK Celebration Week will ask the question “Who Will You Inspire to Dream?” with six days of lectures, panel discussions, and film screenings (January 18-23, free).