Monday is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and the NWA MLK Council is hosting a number of weekend events. Ozarks at Large’s Jack Travis spoke with Chris Seawood, vice president of the NWA MLK Council, to discuss this weekend.
Seawood: Super excited to be celebrating our 30th annual recommitment celebration of the NWA MLK Council for short. Kicking off or leading off the weekend is our third annual Beloved Community Festival, hosted by our friends at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. Super excited about that event. Like I said, it’s our third one.
This year, the first year, we had about 400 people attend. Last year, we more than tripled that number, had over 1,500 people attend. It’s a multicultural event that focuses on the multicultural food, music and art that makes up the rich diaspora here in Northwest Arkansas, and it is completely free. All the food, all the music, all the art. We even actually have a kids zone as well, so there’s something for everybody, no matter your age, no matter your background. Super excited about that.
The entire weekend is jam-packed. Saturday, we have a community service day. Sunday is a memorial service with a panel. Then leading into the actual holiday on Monday, we’ll have our Dreamkeepers Breakfast we do annually, as well as our march, which won’t be a physical march. The weather is getting to be a little bit too hard to predict, so we’re pivoting to what we call a virtual march, which will be held at TheatreSquared at 11 a.m.
The breakfast is also at TheatreSquared, but just be mindful that if people want to attend the in-person march, you do need to register online at our website because seating is very, very limited at TheatreSquared. But there will be a virtual component, like I mentioned, so you’ll be able to stream it live if you’re not able to grab a seat.
That kind of makes up the weekend for us. There’s also the University of Arkansas vigil that we are promoting on our website as well. That will be immediately after our march at TheatreSquared.
Travis: And we’ll have direct links to all of that on KUAF if listeners want to go there for more information. But, Chris, I’m curious, with the 30th anniversary, is there anything new or different that’s occurring this year, maybe compared to years past?
Seawood: New and different really is, again, like I mentioned, it’s our third annual Beloved Community Festival. We really are excited about the iterations of that festival, how it’s really growing. Our first year, we just had the Great Hall at the museum. The second year, it was opened up from the Great Hall to the Eleven restaurant. And now this year, through remarkable attendance and really just building the trust through that partnership, we have complete ownership of the museum.
The only part of the museum we don’t have ownership of is the part that’s under renovation right now. So that collaboration and the trust and belief of the Crystal Bridges Museum leadership is just phenomenal. We’re very, very excited about that.
We’re really pivoting this year as well. We typically have had a recommitment celebration on Saturday evening, so we’re pivoting away from that for this year because we really want to hone in on service, this being our 30th year. Dr. King really focused on service as well, so we want to try to make this a year of service in every capacity.
The day of service on Saturday morning is really important to us. We’re encouraging the public to come out and serve with us at the St. Augustine Foundation. There’s a volunteer link on our website for you to be able to do that. But if you can’t serve with us there, I’m sure there are numerous opportunities for you to serve at various organizations throughout the region, in Fayetteville. Find a way to engage.
We really feel these are moments and these are times right now for people to engage. These are not times to be apathetic, to rest on our laurels, to sit on our hands. We need active and engaged citizens right now. So find a way to get up and engage, even post-holiday. Engage. Figure out a way. Stay active. Stay hyper-local. Stay vigilant. Figure out a way to be an answer to a problem.
Travis: With regard to that, I’d love to hear what’s been on your mind this week as we get closer to Martin Luther King Jr. Day and just how you’re approaching this weekend.
Seawood: We’re approaching the day as we always do. It’s a time of recommitment. I was asked the question earlier what this means as a time of recommitment. But recommitment to us means remembering. It’s looking back on what Dr. King and all of our other ancestors sacrificed for us. They sacrificed life, limb and property for us to be here, and we cannot take that for granted.
So for the little sacrifice that us and my other council members do to help make this weekend possible — and we’re a completely volunteer council — it is not a lot. It’s a lot of work, but it’s worth the effort to help bring this to our community.
The ongoing work we do throughout the year is well worth it, to challenge, inspire, even provoke in some instances, our community to continue to ensure that the arc of the moral universe continues to point toward justice, as Dr. King so often alluded to when he was alive.
We’re just excited to see the community come out and celebrate with us. I’d also mention this happens to be one of our largest fundraisers of the year for our scholarship endowment. We give away about $30,000 in scholarships to graduating high school seniors in the Northwest Arkansas region and undergraduates currently enrolled in college and trade school. Our scholarship endowment helps make that possible. Any amount is welcome, and folks can give again on our website. We look forward to seeing the community out this weekend.
Chris Seawood is vice president of the NWA MLK Council. He spoke with Ozarks at Large’s Jack Travis. You can visit nwamlk.org for more information about this weekend and about the council.
Meanwhile, the River Valley Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Commission, teaming up with the University of Arkansas Fort Smith, will host a series of observations beginning tomorrow. This year’s theme is Hope and action: inspiring our future.
The weekend observations in the River Valley begin with the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship Banquet tomorrow night at 6 p.m. That is a sold-out event. Sunday evening at 6 p.m., Community Bible Church on Rogers Avenue will host the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Ecumenical Service. Pastor Jonathan Lowder will deliver the evening’s message. Pastor Lowder has been the senior pastor at St. James Missionary Baptist Church in Fayetteville since 2024.
Monday, the annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day Breakfast begins at 7 a.m. inside the Reynolds Room at UAFS. It’s a free annual event and will include remarks by Dr. Duane Goldman, senior adviser on racial equity to the Secretary of Agriculture during the Biden-Harris administration.
The Martin Luther King Jr. Day Parade in Fort Smith follows the breakfast, beginning at 10 a.m., starting at North Seventh Street and Garrison. Community members and organizations are invited to participate. To register or learn more, email fortsmithmlk@gmail.com or call 504-427-4013.
The University of Arkansas Fort Smith will also host lectures and a civil rights display at the library throughout next week. The theme for this year’s lecture series is Standing up for what’s right.
Ozarks at Large transcripts are created on a rush deadline. Copy editors utilize AI tools to review work. KUAF does not publish content created by AI. Please reach out to kuafinfo@uark.edu to report an issue. The audio version is the authoritative record of KUAF programming.
