MLK Day features a host of special events and community-based service projects throughout the city (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
Multiple venues
Monday, January 21
www.mlkday.gov
In 1983, the third Monday in January was officially recognized as Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, honoring the birthday of the civil rights leader who was assassinated in Memphis on April 4, 1968. Dr. King would have turned eighty-four this month, and you can celebrate his legacy tomorrow by participating in a Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service project or attending one of several special events taking place around the city. BAM’s twenty-seventh annual free Brooklyn Tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. includes a keynote speech by Harry Belafonte, a live simulcast of the presidential inauguration activities, and musical performances by the Brooklyn Interdenominational Choir and Kindred the Family Soul. The JCC in Manhattan again teams up with Symphony Space for Artists Celebrate: Martin Luther King, Jr., a free evening consisting of Catherine Russell & Her Band performing “Civil Rights in Song and Spirit,” Anthony Russell, Anthony Coleman, and Michael Winograd coming together for “Convergence: Hebrew, Yiddish, Yemenite, and African-American Songs in a Contemporary Jazz Setting,” and April Yvette Thompson starring in excerpts from Liberty City, her play written with Jessica Blank, all taking place at Symphony Space beginning at 6:30. The Museum of the Moving Image will be open on MLK Day, screening Martha Burr and Mei-Juin Chen’s new documentary, The Black Kungfu Experience, as part of their “Fist and Sword” series, with martial artists Ron Van Clief, Tayari Casel, and Dennis Brown on hand to talk about the film, followed by the special presentation “Tongues Untied, True Tales Told: African-American Women Changing the Picture in Film and Television,” with Ruby Dee, S. Epatha Merkerson, and Barbara Montgomery, featuring discussion along with clips from Montgomery’s upcoming Mitote as part of the museum’s “Changing the Picture” series. The Children’s Museum of Manhattan will teach kids about King’s legacy with its “Make a Difference Pledge,” “I Have a Dream Mural,” and performances by the Harlem Gospel Choir, while the Brooklyn Children’s Museum has “Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Message of Peace” craft activity and an educational discussion of “Justice Everywhere.” And the Museum at Eldridge Street will be hosting a free Family Story Hour & Crafts highlighted by a reading of Eloise Greenfield and Jan Spivey Gilchrist’s picture book The Great Migration: Journey to the North.