Western North Carolinians will honor the memory of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. with events happening throughout the week. Here’s a quick round up of what’s planned.:
Monday, Jan. 19.:
9 a.m.- noon: Asheville GreenWorks has a MLK memorial service day underway. The organization is hosting a roadside cleanup around Martin Luther King Jr. Park.
10 a.m.: Lenoir-Rhyne University hosts novelist Jesmyn Ward, author of Salvage the Bones. A peace march sponsored by the Hickory Chapter of the NAACP immediate follows the assembly.
11:30 a.m.: The Martin Luther King, Jr. Association of Asheville and Buncombe County will host its annual peace march and rally to Pack Square Plaza. The procession will begin assembling at St. James AME at 11:30 a.m. and will depart at noon.
noon: Mars Hill University hosts a screening and discussion of the documentary At the River I Stand: King’s Final Days.
1 p.m.: Guided tour of “Our Story/This Place: African American Education in Madison County” at the Rural Heritage Museum.
3 p.m.: Jackson County’s recently formed NAACP branch will hold a MLK Day Celebration at Bridge Park in downtown Sylva. Donations will be accepted for Sylva’s food pantry, The Community Table.
4:30 p.m.: Western Carolina University’s Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity will host a unity march convening at the University Center.
6 p.m.: The annual Kenilworth Celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. will be held at Kenilworth Church Fellowship Hall. The event includes a potluck and discussion of African American history in Asheville with speakers Darin Waters, Dwight Mullen and Marvin Chambers.
Tuesday, Jan. 20:
noon: WCU students will recite speeches on social justice, including King’s “Letter From a Birmingham Jail” from the balcony of the University Center.
12:30 p.m.: UNC Asheville hosts a public lecture, “Lunch-n-Learn: What is Privilege? From a Social Justice Point of View.”
7 p.m.: Warren Wilson College’s MLK Keynote Address with Rev. Oscar McCloud.
7 p.m.: UNC Asheville hosts Erika Allen of Growing Power Chicago for discussion of food and social justice.
Wednesday, Jan. 21:
noon: Western Carolina University hosts a public lecture, “Lunch and Learn Part 1: The Grassroots Black Freedom Struggle with Dr. Rob Ferguson.”
5:30 p.m.: Warren Wilson College students present a report from their recent visit to Ferguson, MO.
6 p.m.: Western Carolina University holds its keynote address for MLK Week with Brandon A. Robinson.
6 p.m. – UNC Asheville hosts a screening of the documentary If These Walls Could Talk.
Thursday, Jan. 22.
noon-2 p.m.: UNC Asheville hosts a Speak Out & Die In in Mills Courtyard.
6 p.m.: Hood Talk meets at Pisgah View Apartments with a discussion of African-American history.
7 p.m.: Documentary filmmaker Byron Hurt will deliver UNC Asheville’s MLK Week keynote address.
7 p.m.: Warren Wilson College hosts OH! FREEDOM, a two-man performance with prose from historical scholars, poems and spirituals discussing the Underground Railroad.
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