Every year since 1983, the third Monday in January has been observed as a federal holiday to honor the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, and to recognize his tireless crusade of nonviolence and the fight for racial equality for Black Americans. This year, on Jan. 16 and throughout the month, cultural centers, theaters and art institutions have organized activist panels, quilt-making projects, film screenings and performances.
Here are six ways to memorialize the civil rights leader, whose legacy, more than a half century after his death, is still remembered through acts of service.
Bonanza at the Brooklyn Academy of Music
For the 37th year, the Brooklyn Academy of Music will present a free virtual and in-person tribute to King on Jan. 16 at 10:30 a.m. Along with a keynote speech by Sherrilyn Ifill, a former president of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, guests can enjoy performances by the activist and artist Allison Russell and the Sing Harlem choir.
In “Courage Takes Creativity,” a kid-friendly event beginning at 10:30 a.m., participants can learn Guinean and Haitian songs and dances, create photo art using snapshots of civil rights moments, build their own flags and more. At 1 p.m., grab a seat for a screening of the film “My Name is Pauli Murray,” which documents the trailblazing civil rights attorney who inspired King and Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
From Jan. 12-20, attendees can visit “Freedom!,” a visual art project made up of digital billboards inspired by the playwright Lorraine Hansberry, and enjoy jam sessions with the bassist Russell Hall on Jan. 13 at 9 p.m. and the jazz-rock power trio Harriet Tubman on Jan. 14 at 9 p.m.
Celebratory Music
On Jan. 14, an Afrofuturist twist on “The Sound of Music,” “The Sound of (Black) Music,” features a fusion of gospel, jazz, blues and funk. The concert begins at 10:30 p.m. at the Manderley Bar in the McKittrick Hotel in Chelsea, home to “Sleep No More,” the immersive theater performance. Those in search of a spiritual celebration on Jan. 16 can enjoy the powerhouse vocals of the Harlem Gospel Choir in a 1:30 p.m. performance at Sony Hall in Midtown.
Social Groundbreakers at the Apollo
At the Apollo’s 17th annual King celebration, presented with WNYC, “MLK — Blueprint for the Culture,” WNYC’s Kai Wright will speak to the activist Chelsea Miller and the author Imani Perry and break down Nina Simone’s soulful song “To Be Young, Gifted and Black,” while also discussing what activism looks like for younger generations. Going deeper into the music found in social justice movements, the Apollo will also feature performances by the classical music collective Harlem Chamber Players, the vocal ensemble Dream Launchers and the tenor Chauncey Packer. The program, which is part of the Apollo’s Uptown Hall series, takes place on Jan. 15 at 3 p.m. in the theater, and will be streamed virtually. At 5 p.m., young activists and community leaders will take the Apollo’s virtual stage to address topics like gun violence and reproductive rights in a panel discussion.
Crafts and Tours for the Family
Inspired by King’s visit to Gee’s Bend, Ala., quilting returns to Wave Hill garden and cultural center in the Bronx, as a part of its weekly family art project. From 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Jan. 14, children and adults can learn about shapes and colors as they patch together fabric cutouts and personalize their quilts, influenced by the Freedom Quilting Bee community led by Black women in Gee’s Bend in the 1960s, who shared quilt-making techniques across generations.
At 11 a.m. on Jan. 15, and on other select days, visitors can tour the area near Central Park’s perimeter where Seneca Village once stood, and learn about the neighborhood’s rich history. Before laying the framework for Central Park in 1858, Seneca Village provided solace for a predominantly Black community fleeing unfavorable living conditions and racial discrimination in Lower Manhattan.
Theater Highlighting Black Stories
The Broadway revival of August Wilson’s “The Piano Lesson” has been extended through Jan. 29 at the Ethel Barrymore Theater. The play, which was first staged in 1987 and won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama three years later, follows a family battle over a haunted piano and the generational trauma and grief attached to it. In her review, Maya Phillips, a New York Times critic at large, wrote, “What haunts the Charles household is what haunts Black America every day — the living history of racial violence and pervasive inequality.”
Over at the Helen Hayes Theater, “Between Riverside and Crazy” (which also took home a Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2015), runs through Feb. 12. The 2014 play by Stephen Adly Guirgis follows Walter, a former police officer, and his son Junior (played by the rapper Common), who struggle to hold onto a rent-stabilized apartment on Riverside Drive.
King Movies
The harrowing 2015 film “Selma,” starring David Oyelowo, depicts King’s incessant efforts, despite violent opposition, to secure the Black vote through the introduction of the Voting Rights Act. For another streaming option, the 2020 documentary “MLK/FBI” examines an F.B.I. director’s unsettling obsession with King’s personal life and political affiliations, and his determination to bring down the civil rights leader. In a 2021 review, A.O. Scott, The Times’s co-chief film critic, wrote that the minute details make the documentary “suspenseful, visually engrossing and intellectually bracing” and that it “raises urgent, sometimes uncomfortable questions about power, privacy and the ethical challenges of examining the past.”
