Event celebrates life of Martin Luther King, Jr. through music

| January 15, 2019 1:42 PM

Love Lives Here in the Flathead is collaborating with Groovetrail and Jazz at Lincoln Center for a celebration of the life of Martin Luther King, Jr.

The event is Friday, Jan. 18 at 7:30 p.m. the Whitefish Performing Arts Center. Admission is free, but donations will be gratefully accepted at the celebration. The evening will feature musicians from Groovetail’s all-star Flathead Ellington Project alongside Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Academy alumni, who are students who have studied under the tutelage of trumpeter and Jazz at Lincoln Center’s artistic director Wynton Marsalis and are traveling from New York City for the event.

Helena Mayor Wilmot Collins is the guest speaker for the evening and is the first black mayor in the state. Collins is a former refugee from Liberia who escaped that nation’s First Liberian Civil War in 1994. Since then, he has gained citizenship, served in the U.S. Navy Reserve, worked for the Montana Department of Health and Human Services, raised a family, and supported his community in many ways. He has been featured in national media and recently participated in The Cities of Solidarity Initiative panel at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Dialogue on Protection in Geneva, Switzerland.

Allen Secher and Erica von Kleist have been working to organize the event.

“We’re thrilled to be able to bring together musicians from Whitefish with some incredible talent from New York,” said von Kleist. “We’ve been working for months to bring some of music that Dr. King loved right here to the Flathead to celebrate his legacy.”

This event is made possible in collaboration with Groovetrail and Love Lives Here in the Flathead Valley, a nonprofit organization committed to creating a caring, accepting, and diverse community, free from discrimination and dedicated to equal treatment for all citizens.

More information can be found at http://loveliveshereflathead.org. Love Lives Here in the Flathead Valley is an affiliate of the Montana Human Rights Network.