Description
Join the City of Cambridge as we celebrate and remember the life and work of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
• 11:00 AM to 12:45 PM: Celebration of Dr. King’s Life and Work for Peace, Justice, and Transformation.
• 12:45 to 1:45 PM: Informal lunch and community gathering in the undercroft (basement) at St. Peter’s.
We will gather as a community to hear readings from Dr. King’s words calling for peace, justice and transformation,
music by Véronique Epiter, Christina DeVaughn and members of Cambridge's Episcopal churches, and
remarks by Ellen Semonoff, who has served as Assistant City Manager for Human Services for the City of Cambridge since 2004. She provides leadership and day-to-day management of the Department of Human Service Programs, which includes a wide array of programs. Ms. Semonoff serves on the Board of the Cambridge Health Alliance and in 2014, President Obama appointed her to his Advisory Group on Prevention, Health Promotion, and Integrative and Public Health. She spent several years in Washington D.C., serving as a Special Assistant to the Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, Joseph A. Califano, and as a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.
In 1967, Martin Luther King described what he saw as the most serious challenge for our society. In his words, “We must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.” More than fifty years later, the United States still faces these three existential challenges to our values as a nation.
This event is free, open to all, and is wheelchair accessible.
Immediately following lunch will be the Many Helping Hands MLK Day of Service, starting at City Hall.