Rebecca Rona-Tuttle
We don’t really celebrate President Washington’s and President Lincoln’s birthdays any longer—unfortunately. And now that we’re more informed about Christopher Columbus’s history, we don’t celebrate him either. But in Culver City and throughout the country, we can look forward to honoring and celebrating a great hero, Dr. Martin Luther King.
A side note: I am not an unbiased reporter—anything but. In fact this is the seventh year that we’ve held the celebration as an official city event, and the seventh year I’ve served on the MLK planning committee. I’m an unabashed champion of this event. Some years we focus more on delightful music, other years more on fascinating speakers or significant movies or intriguing plays. But whatever the program entails, when the event is over, our audience always leaves feeling informed, entertained, inspired, further connected to the community and—simply put—good about having honored Dr. King, one of our greatest heroes.
This coming Sunday, January 15--Dr. King’s actual birthday—we will open wide the doors of the Culver City Senior Center (Overland Ave. at Culver Blvd.) for a full day’s worth of activities for adults and children, from 11 a.m. until 7 p.m. Visitors may arrive at any time, refreshments will be served, and all activities are free.
Although we will feature certain non-Culver City participants--such as UCLA history professor Scot Brown; our emcees, actor John Marshall Jones and news reporter Beverly White; the playwright Christina Harley and actors Margaret “Shug” Avery and Art Evans—most of our presenters and performers hail from Culver City. And so this event is a wonderful opportunity to celebrate some of Culver City’s treasures.
Rev. Leon Campbell of the Culver City-based Agape International Spiritual Center will present the invocation and personal remarks.
Panelists responding to this year’s theme, Have We Achieved Dr. King’s Dream?”, will include former Congresswoman Diane Watson, who represented Culver City; Culver City Mayor Micheal O’Leary, Saundra Davis, former president of the Culver City School Board; and Daniel Lee, a community activist and member of this year’s Martin Luther King Celebration Committee. Also on the panel will be Anthony Samad. Dr. Patricia Siever--member of the CCUSD school board, history professor at West Los Angeles College and program subcommittee chair of this year’s Celebration—will moderate.
Our audience will take part in an interactive presentation entitled “Stepping Up to the Dreamer,” a creation of the poet Charlotte Sista C. Ferrell, a longtime member of Culver Palms United Methodist Church and founder of its Mustard Seed Ministries program.
Playwright Christina Harley, who’s award-winning, delightful and thought-provoking play “The Dreamers” will be given a staged reading by some exceptional actors, has been named an unofficial Culver City resident. Not long after attending a meeting or two to pitch her play, she found herself serving on both the programming and publicity subcommittees and accepting a variety of Celebration assignments.
Audience members often report they’re fondest of the young winners of the Martin Luther King Student Speech contest, and this year might be no exception. In the fall, nearly 100 students from the CCUSD wrote essays, in December 18 of these students auditioned and three were selected to present their speeches: a fifth grader, a middle schooler and a high school student.
The majority of our musicians also hail from Culver City (or Culver City Adjacent): the Culver City High School Jazz Combo, the Culver City High School Choral Singers and the West Los Angeles College Jazz Ensemble. So too does Dr. Luther Henderson, music professor at LA City College, who coordinated the day’s musical presentations.
Dr. Larry Earl will describe the holdings of the Mayme A. Clayton Library and Museum, a Culver City institution that contains one of the largest collections of African American documents and other memorabilia in the nation.
The Mayme A. Clayton Library and Museum exhibit and children’s activities will run concurrently with the remainder of the program.
Martin Luther King Celebration Committee members are Rupert Francisco, chair; Yavonna Blackmon, Dr. Patricia Siever, Bill Wynn, David Morse, Daniel Lee and Rebecca Rona-Tuttle. Also contributing to this year’s event is former committee member Jasmine Hailey.
If you’d like more information, please visit the city website: www.culvercity.org or phone (310) 253-6675.
CC Martin Luther King Celebration Schedule
11 a.m. Doors open
11:30 a.m. Welcome, opening program
12 p.m. Historical overview--Dr. Scot Brown
12:15 p.m. Panel discussion with Q&A
1:30 p.m. “Stepping Up to the Dreamer,” interactive event with poet Charlotte Sista C. Ferrell
2:30 p.m. Mayme A. Clayton Library and Museum—words from Dr. Larry Earl, director
2:45 p.m. CCHS Jazz Combo (and refrshments)
3:30 p.m. Invocation and remarks—Rev. Leon Campbell of Agape Spiritual Center
3:45 p.m. Winning speeches by three CCUSD students
4:15 p.m. CCHS Choral Singers
4:45 p.m. “The Dreamers,” a staged reading of Christina Harley’s play
6 p.m. West Los Angeles College Jazz Ensemble
6:40 p.m. Closing remarks
Rebecca Rona-Tuttle is a member of Culver City's Martin Luther King Celebration Committee and the Director of Together.
... and this weekend, an AVPA Theatre student will participate in the August Wilson Monologue Competition, which is made possible by the Center Theatre Group (CTG) in partnership with the California Educational Theatre Association (CETA).
ReplyDelete"The competition is designed to preserve the works of this Pulitzer Prize-winning African American author, bring his works to a new generation, and provide opportunities for students to learn and practice the craft of acting through monologue performances."
"Students in 10th, 11th and 12th grade from Los Angeles, Ventura, Orange, Riverside, and San Bernardino Counties are eligible to perform a 2-3 minute monologue of their choosing from from one of the plays in the August Wilson Century Cycle Compendium, a document provided by the CTG.
The top 15 finalists from CETA's High School Theatre Festival will participate in master classes with CTG and compete in a public competition in March, 2012, and three winners from CTG's competition will receive cash prizes and the opportunity to compete in the August Wilson national finals on Broadway at the August Wilson Theatre in May, 2012.
Rebecca, thank you for your work on the Culver City Martin Luther King Day Celebration Planning Committee. Please pass my thanks along to the entire committee for putting on a spectacular event. Although I was not able to stay for the entire program, I was able to sample portions throughout the
ReplyDeleteday, and I learned so much, connected with old friends and new.
I especially appreciated the extra time allotted to the panel. The panelists did such a fine job - it was a privilege to be present for their informed conversation. Again, many thanks to the entire committee. P.S Much appreciation and a big thank you to Arames!