She rarely speaks publicly on the holiday commemorating the life of her father, but Yolanda King knows how to communicate a message.
“I seek to do it in my own way, utilizing my gifts as a communicator, performer and writer,” King told The Daily three hours before her Monday keynote address at Pick-Staiger Concert Hall.
King, the eldest daughter of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., brought excerpts from her theater production “Achieving the Dream,” to Northwestern.
The show, which she has performed around the country, features her role-playing several historic moments during the Civil Rights Movement.
The production has received eight NAACP Theater Image Award nominations.
Along with her stage production, King also co-edited a book entitled, “Open My Eyes, Open My Soul,” a collection of short stories and poems celebrating humanity.
“The focus (of my book) is going beyond our differences,” said King. “It’s about people coming together.”
King is a well-known actress whose roles include playing Reena Evers in the 1996 movie “Ghosts of Mississippi” and Judge Esther Green on the television show “JAG.”
She is also the CEO and founder of Higher Ground Productions, an artistic production-based organization celebrating peace and diversity.
Despite holding numerous jobs, King said one of the important messages in all of her roles is that everyone must play a role in continuing “The Dream.”
“We should take a look at our own lives and see what are the needs,” King said. “What can I do to contribute?”
Understanding and acknowledging our commonalities and differences, she added, allow us to transcend and “go beyond those differences.”
King also said that in all of her performances she strives to pay tribute to her father’s enormous contribution to both African Americans and society as a whole during the turbulent 1960s.
“This country is so different from the way it was when I was growing up thanks to my father, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.,” she said. “It’s a different, different world.”
Reach Christie Ileto at [email protected].
