Peaceful Light
Event pays tribute to MLK legacy Saturday morning at City Hall
The Martin Luther King Community Coalition kicks off its celebration of MLK Day at 10 a.m. Saturday with “Rekindling the Light of Peace” in the City Council Chambers at Pasadena City Hall, 100 N. Garfield Ave.
The free event features guest speakers including MLK Coalition Chairpersons Drs. David and Jackie Davis, as well as music by the Marshall Fundamental School choir, poetry readings and readings of winning essays from a Pasadena Unified School District student contest. State Assemblyman Chris Holden, D-Pasadena, will be the keynote speaker, and Pasadena Human Relations Commissioner Nat Nehdar will emcee the event.
The events continue on at Altadena Elementary School, 743 E. Calaveras St., Altadena, with the essay contest and an arts and dance exhibition.
King visited Pasadena at least three times during the civil rights movement. In 1958, King accepted an invitation to speak at Caltech by the Leaders of America Program, which brought distinguished speakers to the campus.
In 1960, King preached a sermon at Friendship Baptist Church on Dayton Street and South DeLacey Avenue after meeting then-head Pastor Marvin T. Robinson.
King returned to Friendship Baptist in 1965, one year after winning a Nobel Peace Prize and two years after delivering his powerful “I Have a Dream” speech during the march on Washington.
In 1967, former All Saints Rector Ed Bacon had a chance encounter with King in an Atlanta airport. The meeting inspired Bacon to reread the Bible with an emphasis on equality and justice.
In addition to the city’s Human Relations Commission, the event is supported by the Martin Luther King Community Coalition, the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance, the Ecumenical Council of Pasadena Area Churches, the YWCA Pasadena-Foothill Valley, the Pasadena Unified School District, the Altadena NAACP, the Pasadena NAACP, Aspires West Pasadena, the Pasadena Journal and the Pasadena Weekly.
Locally, the King Coalition has worked to keep King’s legacy alive for 26 years. During that time, the coalition has sponsored the MLK Essay Contest, in which more than 20,000 local students have participated.
Spilling Secrets
PW staffers offer insights into how Pasadena Weekly gets made during Jan. 12 event at Pasadena Central Library
In an era when traditional, daily newspapers are losing revenue, cutting budgets and decreasing staff, alternative newsweeklies such as Pasadena Weekly seem to be thriving. The Pasadena Weekly’s editorial staff will discuss the keys to making hyper-local newspapers find a sustainable niche serving their communities, the process of putting out a paper each week, and how it makes editorial decisions in a special event at the Donald Wright Auditorium in the Pasadena Central Library at 7 p.m. next Thursday, Jan. 12.
The event will feature editor Kevin Uhrich, deputy editor Andre Coleman, arts editor Carl Kozlowski and columnist Ellen Snortland, and will be moderated by frequent contributor Justin Chapman. The team will also discuss Pasadena city politics and the books they have authored, and will take questions from the audience.
The Pasadena Central Library is located at 285 E. Walnut St., Pasadena. Call (626) 744-4066.