For community members of all ages
Out of an abundance of caution, and care for the health and safety of our attendees, program participants, community partners and volunteers, this year's event will be held virtually, and streamed online and through Natick Community Access TV (Pegasus). Please watch this page for updated details.
Links will be shared soon!
Celebrate the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his legacy that inspires and empowers us all. Everyone is also welcome to gather immediately following the celebration for special MLK Day activities for all ages offered by community partners (via Zoom links)! Co-sponsored by the Greater Natick Interfaith Clergy Association, Natick Is United, the Natick Board of Health, Natick 180, Town of Natick, Natick Public Schools, METCO, Walnut Hill School for the Arts, and SPARK Kindness.
Details to follow re: the MLK Program and our amazing community partners!
The 17th Annual MLK Day Celebration will feature a keynote address from Deacon Art Miller.
Deacon Miller is a certified trainer in Dr. King’s nonviolence philosophy and to this day addresses 21st-century examples of the societal tendency to embrace violence. Echoing the thoughts of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., he believes that as part of the great human experience, no one can sit idly tolerant of the great injustices that happen anywhere in the world.
Deacon is an author, radio, and former television host, Vietnam-era veteran and veteran civil rights worker. Miller was ordained for the Archdiocese of Hartford in 2004. He graduated from the University of Illinois in 1966 and received his MBA from DePaul University in 1972. Currently he is the director of the Office for Black Catholic Ministries. Besides his assigned parish, he is the Chaplin at Hartford’s Capital Community College and Adjunct faculty for Holy Family Retreat Center in West Hartford and Our Lady of Calvary Retreat Center in Farmington, CT.
At public forums, houses of worship, schools and universities across the country, Deacon Miller addresses issues of social injustice. With firsthand knowledge he speaks to his audiences from the perspective of an African American who grew up on the South Side of Chicago in the 1940s and 1950s. Deacon Miller was 10 years old in 1955 when his schoolmate Emmett Till, age 14, was brutally murdered in Mississippi for allegedly whistling at a white woman—an incident that energized the nascent Civil Rights Movement. His recently released book “The Journey to Chatham”, details the historic events seen through the eyes of Emmett’s friends.
Co-sponsored by Greater Natick Interfaith Clergy Association, Natick Is United, the Natick Board of Health, Natick 180, Town of Natick, Natick Public Schools, METCO, Walnut Hill School for the Arts, and SPARK Kindness.