On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Celebrating His Life and Legacy at BAM

Earlier today, hundreds gathered at the Brooklyn Academy of Music to commemorate and celebrate the life of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

It was the institution’s 32nd annual gathering in memory of the civil rights leader.

Borough President Eric Adams hosted the event, and introduced a number of fellow local politicians to speak, including senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Charles Schumer, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez, Council Speaker Corey Johnson, Council Member Laurie Cumbo and Mayor Bill De Blasio.

Jelani Cobb, a staff writer at the New Yorker and a professor at the Columbia School of Journalism, was the keynote speaker. His opening remarks zeroed in on the countries that were the focus of widely criticized recent comments by President Trump.

“These are the people whom this country is intimately and intricately indebted to,” Cobb said. “We cannot talk about the story of American freedom or American liberty without talking about the people of Haiti or talking about the African continent, which supplied the labor that built this country in the first place.”

The Brooklyn Interdenominational Choir opened the event with a rousing musical medley, and the blues and soul singer Martha Redbone, joined by a lively band, performed a number of songs.

[Photos by Craig Hubert]

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