MLK Jr. Day to be celebrated in Wooster with series of events
This year’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration will feature a musical experience — “The Movement Revisited: A Musical Portrait of Four Icons” — and J.D. Steele, one of the creators of the piece, will come to Wooster to be the musical director.
Commemorating Martin Luther King Jr. Day with a series of community-focused events has been a local tradition for many years.
On Jan. 20 all are invited to attend the free celebration service at 7 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church, 621 College Ave., Wooster. The event is sponsored by the Wooster-Orrville NAACP and supported in part by The College of Wooster Cultural Events Committee.
In lieu of a keynote speaker, this year the event will feature a musical experience: “The Movement Revisited: A Musical Portrait of Four Icons.” J.D. Steele, one of the creators of the piece, will come to Wooster to be the musical director. The Center for Cultural Exchange in Portland, Maine commissioned Steele to co-create “The Movement Revisited” with world-renowned jazz bassist Christian McBride.
Steele has been honored with a 2003 Bush Artists Composer Fellowship and has taught and developed music workshop curricula across the country. He has performed on Broadway and has written, produced, performed and recorded with Prince, Donald Fagen, George Clinton, Mavis Staples, Kim Carnes, Fine Young Cannibals, the Sounds of Blackness and others. Steele’s credits also include songwriting and arranging for film.
“The Movement Revisited” is a jazz oratorio with choral singing and spoken words set to jazz compositions. It pays tribute to Rosa Parks, Muhammad Ali, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr. and President Barack Obama through the voices of four narrators. Performers include The College of Wooster Jazz Ensemble, The College of Wooster Gospel Choir, and musicians and singers from the college and community. Any area singers interested in joining the choir for the performance are invited to email COW music professor Jeffrey Lindberg at jlindberg@wooster.edu.
Narrators will be David Rice, pastor at First Presbyterian Church Wooster, as Martin Luther King; Beatrice J. Adams, Ph.D., assistant professor of history at The College of Wooster, as Rosa Parks; David Newberry-Yokley, treasurer at Wooster/Orrville Chapter of NAACP, as Malcolm X; and Joe Kirk Jr., assistant dean of students at The College of Wooster, as Muhammad Ali.
Along with the narrators, there are two vocal soloists: Bri Mosley and J.D. Steele, who is both guest conducting the Gospel Choir and serving as a soloist.
In addition to the evening event, there is a Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. essay contest. An outreach project of the Wooster-Orrville NAACP, the contest is open to all Wayne County students in first grade through 12th grade. There are four separate writing prompts for students in first grade through third grade, fourth grade through sixth grade, seventh grade through ninth grade and 10th grade through 12th grade. The prompts are based on people and events of the modern Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and ‘60s.
“This year’s essay contest prompts focus on young people who bravely joined protests to challenge segregation and the violence used to support it,” said Mady Noble, contest coordinator. “Students in grades fourth through sixth wrote about Joe Lacey, a middle school student who risked his life to drive black people to work during the Montgomery bus boycott.”
The 12 student essay winners will receive their awards as part of the evening celebration on Jan. 20.
“The MLK Essay Contest gives students and teachers the opportunity to revisit the sacrifices people made to give everyone equal treatment and empowerment under our laws,” Noble said. “The legacy of Dr. King keeps this memory alive so that each generation carries it forward.”
The MLK Committee and the NAACP also are sponsoring two events with the Wayne County Public Library — an MLK Art Contest and a book reading. The book reading from “Freedom on the Menu” by Carol Boston will take place Jan. 20 from 2-4 p.m. at the main library in downtown Wooster. All ages are welcome to attend the special reading held in meeting rooms three and four. Additionally, there will be a community art project.
The MLK Art Contest was created by Art of Inclusion, a branch of Community Action Wayne/Medina, to encourage students to participate in celebrating MLK. Art prompts were designed to collaborate with the essay prompts. All submitted art will be on display at the library for a month in the children’s department.
Find the event at www.wooster-orrvillenaacp.org/MLK.
“This year’s commemoration is a partnership between the NAACP, The College of Wooster, and local churches who value and celebrate the courageous vision and leadership of Dr. King and are committed to furthering that vision into the future,” Rice said.
Rev. D. Kevan S. Franklin is the senior pastor at Wooster’s Trinity United Church of Christ and a member of the MLK Committee.
“Martin Luther King’s message and philosophy needs to reach a broader audience in our country,” Franklin said. “There are many misunderstandings about the Civil Rights Movement, and we need to send a clear message of nonviolent social change. Dr. King was a great speaker and thinker, and we attempt to reach out to as many people as possible to bring about positive nonviolent change.
“We encourage the community to join the NAACP local unit and participate in acts for social uplift.”