The Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture will host the 1st Annual “A Celebration of the Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.”

 The day-long event on Monday, Jan. 18, will run from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. and will feature films, spoken word, live performances and participatory workshops for all ages. The Gantt Center is located at 551 South Tryon Street in Charlotte.

The events are free and open to the public.

For more information and a schedule of events, visit the Gantt Center Web site at www.ganttcenter.org, or call (704) 547-3700.

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Central Piedmont Community College is challenging students to honor the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. by participating in a day of community service on Jan. 18, from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Each team of students will receive a different service project, and the challenge is to complete it by the end of the day, using creative means and whatever resources they can find. Students will be given a small sum of money, but the rest is up to them.

For example, if the project is to get a new dishwasher installed at the food bank, students may need to raise more money, buy a dishwasher with whatever money they have and find someone to install it on a day where businesses are traditionally closed. The projects are a surprise and the students working together will not know one another, which further adds to the challenge.

The teams will meet back at CPCC after the challenges for reflection and a pizza party.

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The Charlotte-Mecklenburg chapter of the NAACP will host its first annual King Day celebration on Saturday, Jan. 16. The event begins at 5 p.m. at Little Rock AME Zion Church and will feature speakers and performances.

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UNC Charlotte students will honor King will on Jan. 18 by volunteering at the historic Westview Cemetery in Wadesboro. Members of the Africana Studies Club, a student organization of the Africana Studies Department, are leading the project, which will involve cleaning and documenting grave markers.

According to organizers, since the passing of the cemetery’s caretaker in the 1960s, the more than 200-year-old cemetery has become overgrown and neglected.

“There are graves located there that date back to the late 1800s,” said club president India Solomon. “This place has a lot of history that should be preserved and disseminated.”

During a visit to the cemetery, Solomon and club vice president Tiffany Hock learned about the Friends of Old Westview Cemetery, a non-profit organization established to raise awareness of and restore the cemetery. The duo worked with the organization to set up this volunteer project.

Akin Ogundiran, chair of the Africana Studies Department, said the project is a way to advance students’ learning and research about African-American history, as well as an opportunity for public education and community service and as a way to help with the documentation and preservation of the cemetery.

UNC Charlotte faculty, staff and students and community members are encouraged to join the clean-up. A bus will leave from the university’s East Deck at 10 a.m. Jan. 18 and will return to campus by 5 p.m.

For more information, e-mail Solomon at isolomon@uncc.edu or Ogundiran at ogundiran@uncc.edu. To RSVP for the trip, contact DeAnne Jenkins at djenki@uncc.edu or call 704.687.2371 before 5 p.m., Thursday, Jan. 14.

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Damian Johnson, CEO and co-founder of No Grease Inc., will be the featured speaker at the annual MLK Wreath Laying Memorial Ceremony. The community-fused event takes place each year on January 15th, the actual birthday of King, at Marshall Park in Uptown Charlotte, where the statue of the slain civil rights leader stands.

Gospel artist Tunesha Crispell will perform at the event. Her current CD is entitled “Just As I Am.”

The ceremony kicks off a series of activities honoring King, beginning promptly at noon. Complimentary lunch and hot beverages will be provided while supplies last.

Each year, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Planning Committee organizes numerous activities to pay tribute throughout the weekend to Dr. King. Other activities include the MLK Holiday Parade and the MLK National Celebration.

This event is sponsored by the Charlotte Community Relations Committee.

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Levine Museum of the New South offers a day of free admission and special programming honoring King’s life and legacy on Jan. 18.

All ages are invited to learn about the struggles of the civil rights movement in Charlotte and all over the world. In addition to the museum’s current main exhibits – Cotton Fields to Skyscrapers and Changing Places – guests will experience the much-praised senior dance and drum troupe of the McCrorey YMCA along with a special exhibit and discussion presented by students from the Stratford-Richardson YMCA, telling the story of their experiences on a Civil Rights Bus Tour in the summer of 2009.

Admission is free; admission tickets will be issued throughout the day on an hourly schedule beginning at 10am (300 tickets available per hour).

For more information or to see a schedule of events, visit the museum’s Web site at www.museumofthenewsouth.org.

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More than 300 CMS students submitted artwork or an essay in the annual Martin Luther King Jr. art and writing contest. This year’s theme was “Holding the Dream, Celebrating the Present, Touching the Future.”

Winning entries will be recognized on Thursday, Jan. 14, at a ceremony held at West Charlotte High School (2219 Senior Drive) from 6 to 8 p.m. First place winners of the writing contest will read their essays and the winning artwork will also be on display at a reception following the ceremony. Judges selected winners in four age groups: kindergarten through second, third through fifth, sixth through eighth and ninth through 12th grades.

CMS has held the Martin Luther King, Jr. art and writing contest for more than 15 years. The contest, open to K-12 students, is intended to encourage students to think artistically and critically about Dr. King's life and legacy.

The winners will participate in several community events leading up to the King holiday, including a parade on Saturday, Jan. 16, in uptown Charlotte at 11 a.m. Winners and their schools will also be honored during the MLK city wide celebration at Central Piedmont Community College (Halton Theatre, 1206 Elizabeth Avenue) on Monday, Jan. 18, from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m.

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Third-grade students at St. Anne Catholic School in Rock Hill will pay tribute to King through poem and song on Jan. 15 starting at 8 a.m.

Following community prayer, students will honor King legacy and remember his work through recitation of poetry, song and prayer.

The St. Anne school was recently recognized as the state's first to integrate.

See other MLK celebrations/activities in our events listings on the Qcitymetro.com home page.

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