Sun 1/17 @ 7PM
Mon 1/18 @ 9 & 11AM
This year, many programs honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s birthday will be virtual, foregoing the usual community gatherings that proliferate on the Monday dedicated to celebration.
This year the national holiday falls on January 18. The Cleveland Public Library has partnered with channel 19 to air its 36th annual celebration at 9am that day, with addition opportunities to see it on channel 45 Sunday January 17 @ 7pm and Monday January 18 @ 11am.
The theme for the presentation is “And Justice for All,” inspired both Dr. King’s work and writings by author Leslie Snyder, abolitionist Frederick Douglass and President Theodore Roosevelt. The Cleveland Public Library Drum Major for Change Award will be given to Cleveland Foundation Senior Vice President India Pierce Lee. The event will also include a conversation with the Reverend Dr. Marvin McMickle, longtime pastor at Cleveland’s Antioch Baptist Church, who is back following his retirement from there as interim, and teen leaders Madison Reid and Noah Foster.
There’ll also be music from the Cleveland Metropolitan School District All-City Arts Choir and the Rubber City Jazz & Blues Festival, and a Karamu House reenactment of Robert F. Kennedy’s 1968 eulogy of Dr. King and Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.
“COVID-19 has changed so much in our lives, but we won’t let it stop us from honoring the change makers and unsung heroes in the city of Cleveland,” says CPL executive director/CEO Felton Thomas, Jr., Executive Director and CEO of Cleveland Public Library. “Everyone is invited to tune in to commemorate a Civil Rights icon and everyday Clevelanders who go above and beyond for their neighbors.”
Cleveland, OH 44114