The invitation is extended to everyone within the tri-state area but New Yorkers are especially encouraged to attend the 28th annual gathering in Brooklyn to celebrate the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Acclaimed as the largest such gathering in New York City, BAM hosts the “Come Share The Dream” tribute on Monday, Jan. 20.
Beginning at 10:30 a.m. in the BAM Howard Gilman Opera House (Peter Jay Sharp Building, 30 Lafayette Avenue)the celebration this year invites intellectual and revolutionary activist Angela Davis to deliver the keynote address.
“Her work as an educator—both at the university level and in the larger public sphere—has always emphasized the importance of advocating for economic, racial, and gender justice,” a spokesperson stated.
Davis is the author of eight books and has lectured throughout the U.S. as well as in Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, and South America. In recent years a persistent theme of her work has been the range of social problems associated with incarceration and the generalized criminalization of those communities that are most affected by poverty and racial discrimination. She draws upon her own experiences in the early ‘70s as a person who spent 18 months in jail and on trial, after being placed on the FBI’s “Ten Most Wanted List.”
She has also conducted extensive research on numerous issues related to race, gender, and imprisonment. Her most recent books are “Abolition Democracy” and “Are Prisons Obsolete?” both focusing on the abolition of the prison industrial complex.
She also authored a new edition of “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass.” Davis is a founding member of Critical Resistance, a national organization dedicated to the dismantling of the prison industrial complex. Internationally, she is affiliated with Sisters Inside, an abolitionist organization based in Queensland, Australia that works in solidarity with women in prison. Like many other educators, Professor Davis is especially concerned with the general tendency to devote more resources and attention to the prison system than to educational institutions.
Davis will be joined by jazz and soul singer Jose James, the Christian Cultural Center Choir with remarks from BAM President Karen Brooks Hopkins and Medgar Evers President Dr. Rudolph F. Crew.
Master of ceremonies will be Brooklyn’s newly-sworn borough president Eric Adams. According to the organizers, the annual event “brings together artists and civic leaders to commemorate the life and legacy of Dr. King.
Related weekend programming includes a screening of Shola Lynch’s documentary “Free Angela and All Political Prisoners,” a community art exhibition, “Picture the Dream,” featuring works by students from New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) Saratoga Village Community Center guided by the acclaimed artist and former graffiti writer Cey Adams, as well as music performances by Onaje Allan Gumbs & New Vintage as part of BAMcafé Live.
Tickets will be distributed on a first-come, first-seated basis starting at 8:00 a.m. For more information, log onto www.BAM.org.
Catch You On The Inside!
