Martin Luther King Jr. holiday celebrations, activities in Detroit

This week Detroit will celebrate the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday with a variety of different activities. Here are a few different ways to honor the civil rights leader with the community.

Visit a museum: Most museums (many of which are usually closed on Mondays), will be open for the MLK Jr. holiday, including the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Detroit Historical Museum, and the Wright Museum. Just outside the city, the Henry Ford Museum has free admission and a full day of activities.

Celebrate the Grand Opening of a new museum: The William V. Banks Broadcast Museum & Media Center opens on January 16. The museum celebrates the accomplishments of WGPR-TV 62, one of the first African-American owned and operated television stations in the country. More info can be found here.

Take a bike ride: Tour de Troit hosting their annual Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Bike Ride at 10 a.m. Monday, January 16. The route is approximately 10 miles in length and will feature several historical sites relevant to Dr. King and other local activists that were integral to the March and the impact of the “I Have a Dream” speech delivered at Cobo Arena afterward. The ride is free and helmets are mandatory. Interested? You should register here.

March: The Hamtramck Committee of the NAACP is holding a Unity March at 11 a.m. January 16 starting at the Hamtramck Community Center.

Talk to people in your community: U of M Detroit will host a panel discussion on “1960's Music and Rebellion: The Soundtrack of our Lives” at 12:30 p.m. on January 16. The Urban Consulate in Midtown will have discussions all week, including Detroit’s New Food Revival on the 16th, and a frank talk about gentrification on the 17th.

Go see Issa Rae at UofM!!!: Over in Ann Arbor, we’re excited for their Memorial Keynote Lecture, which will feature Amy Goodman from Democracy Now! and Issa Rae, writer and star of HBO’s Insecure. Definitely worth the short road trip.

Are there more you’d like to share? Let us know in the comments.