A celebration of a national icon will take place Monday at Santa Monica College’s Soka Gakkai International (SGI) Auditorium. From 9 a.m. to 12 p.m., the venue at 525 Wilshire Blvd will play host to one of Southern California’s largest birthday celebrations for Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, with the 39th anniversary event taking the theme "Stop the Hate, Start the Healing."
Presented by the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Westside Coalition, the event is scheduled to include music, a brief theatrical performance, as well as presentations of multiple awards. Along with education awards and the Community Light Award, the coalition’s Nat Trives Service Award will be presented to Nat Trives, who served as the first African-American mayor of Santa Monica in the 1970s. After the celebration, the coalition will present a Community Involvement Fair at Santa Monica Bay Woman’s Club, located at 1210 4th St.
The MLK Day event’s keynote speaker will be award-winning trial attorney Lisa Holder, who specializes in fields like education equity, employment discrimination and international human rights law. Holder was recently appointed as President of the Oakland-based Equal Justice Society, and also recently completed a two-year term on the historic Reparations Task Force, appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom for the role.
Festivities for the holiday began on Thursday evening with a free screening of Sing Your Song, a documentary film on the life of singer, actor and activist Harry Belafonte. Held at the Martin Luther King Jr. Auditorium at the Santa Monica Public Library, the documentary screening was followed by a question and answer session presented by the library and the Westside Coalition.
On Friday morning, the Santa Monica Interfaith Council presented a 2024 MLK Freedom Celebration at Mt. Olive Lutheran Church. Centered around the theme "How to Get to Healing," the event featured speakers Rev. Albert Star, Soka Gakkai International - USA Director of Peace Ian McIlraith and Alisa Osunfunke Orduna; and also featured the Santa Monica College Emeritus Gospel Choir directed by William Bryant.
Events over the weekend also include the Santa Monica Symphony Orchestra’s annual Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. concert at the SGI Auditorium, beginning Saturday at 3 p.m. The orchestra will be joined by guest conductor Gary Pratt, as well as choreographer and dancer Bernard Brown, for the performance.
The City of Santa Monica is getting involved on Saturday with the MLK Day of Service, held at the Main Street Community Garden from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. The event plans to bring together the community to support the garden, doing maintenance work and clearing various garden plots. Tools, gloves and water will be provided on site and registration can be done online or by emailing Bee Barba-Padilla.
At the City event, donations will also be accepted for the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District’s weekend bag program, which gives students who may experience weekend food insecurity nutritious and easy-prep food bags, including two breakfasts, two lunches and two snacks. Food donations of granola bars, instant oatmeal and individual trail mix servings are welcome.
