17th Annual Keynote

Sunday, January 17, 2010
The Long Center for the Performing Arts
6:00pm (Doors open at 5:30pm)

Tickets are on sale at Mitchie’s Fine Black Art and at Long Center
Click Here to Buy Tickets Online

The Austin MLK celebration includes the 17th Annual Keynote Address on January 17, 2010.  This years keynote will feature Michael Eric Dyson and the Fisk Jubilee Singers.

Dr. Michael Eric Dyson – who is an American Book Award recipient and two-time NAACP Image Award winner – is one of the nation’s most influential and renowned public intellectuals. He has been named one of the 150 most powerful African Americans by Ebony magazine. The Philadelphia Weekly contends that Dr. Dyson “is reshaping what it means to be a public intellectual by becoming the most visible black academic of his time.”

Not only has Dr. Dyson taught at some of the nation’s most prestigious universities – including Brown, Chapel Hill, Columbia and the University of Pennsylvania – but his influence has carried far beyond the academy into prisons and bookstores, political conventions and union halls, and church sanctuaries and lecture stages across the world.

Dr. Dyson has appeared on nearly every major media outlet, including The Today Show, Nightline, O’Reilly Factor, The Tavis Smiley Show and Real Time with Bill Maher – and he has cemented his star appeal on such shows as Rap City, Def Poetry Jam and The Colbert Report. He is also a contributing editor of Time magazine.

His powerful work has won him legions of admirers and has made him what the Washington Post terms a “superstar professor.” His fearless and fiery oratory led the Chronicle of Higher Education to declare that with his rhetorical gifts he “can rock classroom and chapel alike.” Dr. Dyson’s eloquent writing inspired Vanity Fair magazine to describe him as “one of the most graceful and lucid intellectuals writing on race and politics today.”

Dr. Dyson is presently University Professor of Sociology at Georgetown University. His legendary rise – from welfare father to Princeton Ph.D., from church pastor to college professor, from a factory worker who didn’t start college until he was 21 to a figure who has become what writer Naomi Wolf terms “the ideal public intellectual of our time” – may help explain why author Nathan McCall simply calls him “a street fighter in suit and tie.”

March and Festival

2010 March Route

Monday, January 18, 2010
UT program starts at 9AM. Capitol program starts at 10AM.
MLK Festival @ Huston- Tillotson immediately follows march

To celebrate the national MLK day holiday, the Heritage Council is sponsoring the Community March. The purpose of this 16th annual Community March is to celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King’s legacy while uplifting diversity and multi-culturalism in our city. The MLK Community March kicks off at 9 a.m. with a short program at the MLK Statue on the University of Texas campus. We will then march to the Capitol for a brief program. Thereafter, we will march to the historic Huston-Tillotson University, where exciting activities are planned.

The Heritage Council is planning a Cultural Festival which will begin after the March and last until 2 p.m.; it will include all types of vendors and local musical artists to make this year’s celebration the best ever! A vendor application can be downloaded below for those interested in purchasing booth space. For questions and information, please contact Carol Wright by email or by telephone at (512) 323-6773 ext. 102.

In previous years, the march has drawn up to an estimated 15,000 people and we are anticipating even more individuals to unite for this special occasion in January 2010. All businesses, non-profit organizations and individuals are invited to march with us and celebrate Dr. King’s legacy.

CAPITAL METRO BUS SERVICE INFORMATION

A change in federal regulations in 2008 prevents Capital Metro from providing event shuttle service to/from the MLK festivities. Click on the map icon for a Parking and Transportation Map detailing the bus routes, stops, and parking areas. Additional information about Capital Metro bus routes and schedules is available on the Capital Metro Web site at www.capmetro.org.

FREE PARKING LOCATIONS

• State’s Visitors Garage (Corner of 12th & San Jacinto St. – downtown Austin)
• Disch-Falk Field (1300 E. MLK Blvd.)
• Kealing Middle School (1607 Pennsylvania Ave.)
• Holy Cross Catholic Church (1610 E. 11th)
• Blackshear Elementary (1712 E. 11th)
• Greater Mount Zion Baptist Church (1801 Pennsylvania Ave.)
• Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church (1206 E. 9th)
• Mt. Olive Baptist Church (1800 E. 11th)

Youth Scholarship Awards

Sunday, January 10, 2010
Austin Community College
3401 Webberville Road, Building 8000, room 8500
Austin, TX 78702
2pm (All nominees should arrive by 1PM)

About the Event

As part of the annual MLK Celebration, the MLK Youth Scholarship Awards will recognize high school students throughout Austin for significant accomplishments. At this years program, we will present the Applied Materials Youth Legacy Awards and the Seton Family of Hospitals Foundation MLK Youth Achievement Awards. For more information about this event, please contact Brenda Burt at 512-475-7971.

Applied Materials Youth Legacy Awards

Application Deadline: November 20, 2009. No more applications for these awards are being accepted.

One winner will be chosen in each of the following categories:

• Arts
• Athletic Male
• Athletic Female
• Community Service
• Education
• Fred “Mitchie” Mitchell – Beating the Odds
• Math and Science
• Religion

Seton Family of Hospitals Foundation MLK Youth Achievement Awards

Application Deadline: November 20, 2009. No more applications for these awards are being accepted.

One winner will be chosen in each of the following categories:

• Youth Leadership
• Spirit
• Community Service
• Academic Excellence
• Youth Humanitarian

RSVP for MLK Scholarship Awards

RSVPs for this event are now closed.

MLK Celebration Sponsors