Martin Luther King Day Program: Becoming a Beloved Community

The Beloved Community is a vision that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. popularized during the Civil Rights Movement. King’s Beloved Community is a society based on justice, equal opportunity, and loving our neighbor as we love ourselves. On this Martin Luther King Jr. Day, poets use Michelangelo Lovelace’s painting My Home Town (1998) as a departure point to explore King’s Beloved Community. At first this painting may appear to be about racial divide; the figures that come together in the center of the picture suggest an optimistic and hopeful perspective.

Watch TWO SIXTEEN, written & performed by Orlando Watson

Watch Beloved Rebuild, written and performed by Honey Bell-Bey

The program includes opening remarks by Reverend Dr. Jawanza Colvin, the pastor of Olivet Institutional Baptist Church, a museum trustee, and the inaugural chair of the museum’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee; original poems recited by Cuyahoga County poet laureate Honey Bell-Bey and acclaimed poet Orlando Watson; and a moderated discussion.

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Reverend Dr. Jawanza Colvin

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Honey Bell-Bey

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Orlando Watson