In celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. and his legacy, the city of Evanston extended the one-day celebration to a weekend filled with performances, speeches and community bonding events. The city’s 2026 MLK Day of Celebration took place Saturday, Jan. 17th at the Fleetwood-Jourdain Community Center, honoring young activists during the civil rights movement. Evanstonians continued the musical remembrance of MLK at the 23rd Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Celebration Concert Sunday, Jan 18th.

[Drumming dance number from Ayodele Drum & Dance]

MAIA: The rapid tapping of drums. The rustling of skirts. The tuning of instruments. The belting of a soulful hymn. The collective harmony of a choir. The cheering and clapping of a diverse crowd, honoring the dream Martin Luther King, Jr. once had. 

[Music]

MAIA: From The Daily Northwestern, I’m Maia Alvarez. This is Everything Evanston, a podcast covering all things Evanston.

MAIA: In celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. and his legacy, the city of Evanston extended the one-day celebration to a weekend filled with performances, speeches and community bonding events. The city’s 2026 MLK Day of Celebration took place Saturday, January 17th, at the Fleetwood-Jourdain Community Center, honoring young activists during the civil rights movement. The annual event was hosted by the Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre and organized by its Artistic Director, Tim Rhoze.

MAIA: As the keynote speaker and host, Communication sophomore Brooks Lansana shared the stories of prominent young changemakers through the event. He shared the story of the lynching of 14-year-old Emmett Till and the creation of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, of Ruby Bridges — who attended an all-white school at only 6 years old — of Freeman Hrabowski III and of the Children’s Crusade. All of these stories show how activism can start at any age.  

BROOKS LANSANA: Undeterred, these young activists continued to strive for change by engaging in nonviolent protests, demonstrations, boycotts and civil disobedience in public spaces, in educational institutions, and on the streets, collectively employing their voices to forge a path toward a new and improved future for all.

[children’s choir singing “Mountain Climbing” segment]

MAIA: Community members engaged in performances from the Evanston Children’s Choir, The Musical Offering, MC4 Music, Ayodele Drum & Dance and singers Treasure and Jayla.

[MC4 singing O’sweet chariot segment]

MAIA: MC4 Music, a four-sibling all-Black Christian singing group based in Evanston, performed a special arrangement of “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,” a Black Christian hymn.

CHARITY MOODY: To speak to Sweet Chariot, that the mashup that we did, it has kind of a double meaning because we know the Sweet Chariot is what we’re singing about when the Lord takes us home. And as Christians, we believe. Believe that when we pass on, that’s where we go. But it also is referring to the underground roads. Their walk to freedom, their passageway to freedom.

[Soul4Real performance]

MAIA: Evanstonians continued the musical remembrance of MLK at the 23rd Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Celebration Concert Sunday, January 18th. Held in Nichols Concert Hall at the Music Institute of Chicago in Evanston, performances and readings from Soul4Real, Evanston Children’s Choir, Reach Teach Play, Chicago Musical Pathways and District 65 students rang within the concert hall.

[Flute playing from Kaylee Johnson]

MAIA: Midway through the concert, Keynote Speaker and Dean of Bienen Jonathan Bailey Holland emphasized the goal of the event: to serve as an example and a reminder of what is possible when a collective commits to a united goal, just as King did.

JONATHAN BAILEY HOLLAND: And whether there is an entire orchestra and chorus on stage or just one soloist, the audience plays an important role in the exchange by receiving the music. When musicians and audiences come together in this way, the resulting musical experience reminds everyone of what is possible through cooperation … I would encourage all of us to use the Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday to reflect on who we are and to recommit to doing our part to advance our shared potential.

MAIA: For the concert, the Music Institute collaborated with Hearing in Color, a Chicago-based non-profit organization that seeks to amplify the voices that have been historically excluded from musical spaces. The Institute commissioned a “world premiere composition” from Hearing in Color Young Composer Abisola Toukourou, the youngest person to be selected for the program at 15 years old. As the concluding act of the concert, Toukourou performed “Unknown” alongside Hearing in Color’s vocal ensemble Chroma.

[Sound from “Unknown” performance]

MAIA: Some pieces were performed at both events. An example was when the Evanston Children’s Choir performed “Aya Ngena,” a Zulu folk song from South Africa in the apartheid era that secretly mocks South African prison guards to keep morale up, as explained by the group’s artistic director, Gary Geiger.

GARY GEIGER: And so the entire translation is as follows. They go in, they come out, they are confused, they are frightened, and that’s it.

[Aya Ngena from the Saturday event]

MAIA: Community members across Chicago who attended events throughout the weekend were reminded to not only honor an important individual, but to be motivated to create change of their own. The Honorable Lionel Jean-Baptiste, a Cook County circuit court judge for the 9th subcircuit and first Haitian-American judge ever appointed in Illinois, said that though King led the fight and vision of a better society, that drive is needed on a continuing basis.

LIONEL JEAN-BAPTISTE: The standard is that — it’s justice for all people. It doesn’t mean that it’s equal. But the standard and the expectation is that. So King stood for that, and not only stood for that from an intellectual standpoint, because he certainly was articulated as a learned person, but he put his body on the line, he fought for it. So that’s a lesson we have to learn from him, is that we gotta do like King. It’s like doing like Jesus. Right. These people will fight us. Can’t just observe the world. We gotta be about changing it.

MAIA: Chantal Moody of MC4 Music and Singer Daelyn Calloway each performed the civil rights anthem “A Change is Going to Come” by Sam Cooke. Chantal Moody said performance is necessary to honor individuals like Martin Luther King Jr.

CHANTAL MOODY: It allows you to see a different perspective than you would have been exposed to in life. It can make you feel emotions that you wouldn’t feel otherwise. It’s so, so powerful and so important, especially in this time. So I think that Dr. K would be supportive, and I feel like it was a really good tribute.

[“A Change is Going to Come,” sung by Chantal Moody]

MAIA: From The Daily Northwestern, I’m Maia Alvarez. Thanks for listening to another episode of Everything Evanston. This episode was reported and produced by Maia Alvarez. 

The Audio Editor is Ruby Dowling. The Multimedia Managing Editors are Femi Horrall, Yong-Yu Huang and Jonah McClure. The Editor in Chief is Emily Lichty.

Our theme music is “Revolution” by Xennial, zen-ee-uhl used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License and provided by the Free Music Archive.

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Related Stories: [headlines and links of three related Daily Northwestern stories]
— Evanston’s MLK Day celebration honors youth activism during Civil Rights Movement
— Alpha Mu remembers Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy in candlelight vigil
— Chicago-area artists honor MLK at Nichols Concert Hall