The Office of the Vice Provost is sponsoring its third annual Martin Luther King Jr. celebration Jan. 27, nine days after the holiday is observed.

“The Vice Provost Office does this because the school is closed” on the holiday, said Peter Hornbuckle, student worker at the Office of the Vice Provost.

In addition, the programs are used as an early lead-in to the Black History Month events, Hornbuckle said.

This year all events will be held in the Kiva, beginning at 8:30 a.m. and ending at 8 p.m. The events include student presentations, award presentations and local church performances. The Crestwood High School Choir will be performing, as well as the Butchel High School Gospel Choir and the university Jazz Ensemble.

There will be recitations of the “I Have a Dream” speech and of “Drum Major Instinct,” another Martin Luther King Jr. speech. Pastor Aaron Wheeler Sr., chairman of the Ohio Civil Rights Commission, will speak. The event will also include a panel presentation called “Is Freedom in Peril?” that President Carol Cartwright will moderate.

The Pan African Studies Department is having an Open Mic Night at 7:30 p.m. Thursday in the African Community Theater of Oscar Ritchie Hall. Poet Baba Okantah and pianist Eric Gould will be performing, as well as violinist Obie Shelton, dramatist Prester Pickett and the Hue People.

Contact reporter Adria Barbour at [email protected].