Celebration of Dr. King's life and legacy set Saturday at PCPL

Monday, January 14, 2013
Dittmer

The Putnam County Public Library invites the public to the community celebration of the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on Saturday, Jan. 19.

An Art Reception begins at 1 p.m. and features acoustic and electric blues and jazz by Jonathon January and Cliff Gammon.

January is the lead vocalist, flutist, and guitarist from Blues Side Up, while Gammon, a guitarist, performs with Misfit Toyz.

The formal program will begin at 1:30 p.m. at PCPL, featuring a talk on Dr. King by Civil Rights historian John Dittmer.

Dittmer, professor emeritus of history at DePauw University, will present a talk on the life and legacy of Dr. King.

Professor Dittmer authored the 2009 book "The Good Doctors." He was the recipient of the 2006 Indiana Humanities Award and 2005-07 Ford Foundation Fellowships and received the Bancroft Prize, generally considered the most prestigious award in the field of American history writing, for his 1995 book "Local People: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi."

Dittmer delivered the principal address to DePauw's Class of 2009 commencement and received an honorary doctoral degree.

Also to be featured at PCPL will be:

-- A reading of Maya Angelou's "A Brave and Startling Truth" by local actress Gigi Jennewein Fenlon.

-- A dance performed by DePauw student Ariel Cheatham.

-- Selections from Dr. King's "Letter from Birmingham City Jail" and "I Have a Dream" speech, read by DePauw students Robert Watson and Abbisola Oxley.

-- "The House of Liberty" by Joyce Brown read by J'Nai Macklin, vice president of DePauw's Association of African-American students.

-- Readings of local poetry submissions.

-- Blues and jazz by January and Gammon will close the program.

A children's program will take place in the Children's Library beginning at 1:30 p.m. and will feature stories, a film on Dr. King and an MLK activity booklet to make.

Also, the library has issued a reminder to community artists and poets to bring artwork submissions to the Putnam County Public Library on either Monday, Jan. 14 or Tuesday, Jan. 15 from 9 a.m.-5 p.m.

Submission guidelines are online: www.putnam.lib.in.us, or available at the library. Poetry submissions on the theme of Civil Rights can be sent to press@putnam.lib.in.us or delivered to the library.

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