UMSL & Flo Valley hosting MLK celebrations

In honor of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday this coming Monday, UMSL and St. Louis Community College will each host MLK celebrations featuring noted guest speakers. Both events are free and open to the public.

Gilberto Pinela

On Sunday, January 17, the Flo Valley campus will welcome Hispanic entrepreneur and local civic leader Gilberto Pinela, whose television show “Ahora San Luis” has been airing in St. Louis since 2001. Pinela, who serves on the board of several area institutions, including United Way and the Missouri Historical Society, will speak on the theme “Realizing the Dream through Civic and Community Engagement.”

The event will also feature performances by the Olivette Missionary Baptist Church choir, Florissant Valley’s gospel choir, and dancer Aaron “A-One” Reed, as well as an art exhibit by Flo Valley students and an oratorical contest sponsored by North County Churches United for Racial Harmony & Justice. 3pm at the Fischer Theatre, 3400 Pershall Road, 63135.

Jabari Asim

Over at UMSL, on Monday, January 18, acclaimed author and journalist Jabari Asim will be the keynote speaker, headlining a morning of performing arts at the Touhill. Asim, who gained national attention for his 2007 book, The N Word: Who Can Say It, Who Shouldn’t and Why, is currently scholar-in-residence at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and editor of the NAACP’s magazine, The Crisis.

In addition to Asim, UMSL’s MLK celebration will also feature a dramatic performance depicting a community’s response to violence, directed by Adeniyi Coker, along with music by the Dickson Quartet, four talented sibling musicians from Oregon. 10am at the Touhill’s Anheuser-Busch Hall, 1 University Blvd, 63121.

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