2026 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Living Legacy Convocation

View updated information on upcoming performances and award recipients

Date: January 30, 2026

Time: 6:30 PM

Location: Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts

Theme: Rooted in Community, Rising in Joy

Honoring Dr. King’s legacy through collective strength, creative expression, and the power of joyful resistance.

Six Connecticut Poet Laureates — Atom Rush (Brookfield), Nadia Sims (Manchester), Sharmont “Influence” Little (New Haven), Frederick-Douglass Knowles II (Hartford), Michael “Chief” Peterson (New Britain), and Josh “AnUrbanNerd” Brown (New London)

Spoken Word Artists — Lynnette Elizabeth Johnson, Tymani "GodIsTymaniRain" Pinkston, and Carl Dean

Musical Performances — Isaac Barber, Faith Walker-Tate, and the Voices of Freedom

Come share in an evening that uplifts the spirit, celebrates community, and reminds us of the joyful resistance that fuels enduring change.

This event is free and open to the public. Free tickets will be available for pick up from Jorgensen on January 5th from 10am.

Special thanks to the Provost's Office and Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts.

2025 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Living Legacy Convocation

The 2025 MLK Living Legacy Convocation featured GRAMMY-nominated singer and songwriter Todd Dulaney. Renowned for his powerful, scripture-inspired worship anthems, Dulaney has released several chart-topping albums, including Your Great Name and Anthems & Glory. As the CEO of Dulaneyland Music, a virtual music production company, he continues to push boundaries in the Gospel music industry. UConn’s Voices of Freedom Gospel Choir, led by Dr. Lisa Clayton, was featured during the performance.

Date: January 31, 2025

Time: 6 PM

Location: Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts

View our Video Recap

2024 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Living Legacy Convocation

"The Power of Restorative Justice" with keynote speaker Dr. Fania E. Davis

Please join us at 2024 MLK Living Legacy Convocation with Dr. Fania E. Davis, a trailblazing figure in restorative justice. With a background as a Civil Rights trial attorney and a profound understanding of Indigenous Knowledge, she brings unparalleled insights into healing, racial justice, and transformative truth processes. Dr. Davis is a renowned writer, educator, and international speaker on restorative justice, offering invaluable perspectives that challenge and reshape our understanding of justice and equity.

Date: January 18th, 2024

Time: 6 PM
Location: Student Union Theatre; Live streaming available

2023 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Living Legacy Convocation

The Office for Diversity and Inclusion is pleased to announce the 2023 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Living Legacy Convocation! This year's speaker is Dr. Eddie Glaude, Jr., New York Times Bestselling Author & Chair of Princeton’s Department of African American Studies.

One of the nation’s most prominent scholars, Dr. Eddie Glaude, Jr. is an author, political commentator, public intellectual and passionate educator who examines the complex dynamics of the American experience. His writings, including Democracy in Black: How Race Still Enslaves the American Soul, In a Shade of Blue: Pragmatism and the Politics of Black America, and his most recent, the New York Times bestseller, Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for our Own, takes a wide look at Black communities, the difficulties of race in the United States and the challenges we face as a democracy. In his writing and speaking, Glaude is an American critic in the tradition of James Baldwin and Ralph Waldo Emerson, confronting history and bringing our nation’s complexities, vulnerabilities and hope into full view. Hope that is, in one of his favorite quotes from W.E.B. Du Bois, "not hopeless, but a bit unhopeful."

Convocation Event:

Time: 6.30pm - 8.30pm

Location: Jorgensen Theater

This event is free and open to the public, but a ticket is required. 

This event is co-sponsored by the Provost's Office, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the Africana Studies Institute, Neag School of Education, UConn Library, the School of Pharmacy, and the School of Fine Arts.

2022 Week of Events Celebrating the Legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.

Please note all events will be held virtually

Monday, January 17^th – MLK Day – UConn Day of Service

9:00-3:00 pm

UConn Community Outreach/Campus-Wide Service Initiatives invite you to join us on Monday, January 17^th, 2022, to honor Martin Luther King Jr. and have a day of acknowledgement, educational panels, and service to give back to the Mansfield community. Within this event will be various speakers and topics of focus, along with services that are directly impacting and helping the lives of others. Panels will include the following topics: environmental racism, the incarceration system, and racism as a public health crisis. Our goal is to give everyone something to leave with and remember to stand up for. We want to remember why MLK fought for social justice, and how we can keep his efforts alive.

*Note: In-person service opportunities to be done later in the semester.

Tuesday, January 18^th – National Day of Racial Healing

2:00-3:30 pm

The Office for Diversity and Inclusion is hosting a virtual event in honor of the National Day of Racial Healing featuring guest speaker Feminista Jones.

Wednesday, January 19^th, “What Did MLK, Jr., Ask of Us? Striving to Meet his Ideals on Campus”

12:30-1:15pm

UConn Avery Point Global Café and the Avery Point Director’s Office invite you to join Michael Bradford, a renowned playwright who was a student at Avery Point, later taught drama here, and is now UConn’s Vice Provost for Faculty, Staff, and Student Development.  He and the Global Café coordinators will lead a virtual discussion using MLK’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail”.pdf as a launching point as we reflect on how we’re striving to live King’s dream in our own personal and professional lives.

Thursday, January 20^th – 2022 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Living Legacy Convocation

5:00 pm-7:00 pm

The Office for Diversity and Inclusion and Alumni Relations are happy to announce that the 2022 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Living Legacy Convocation will take the TED Talk format. Our speakers represent faculty, staff, students, and alumni from across all UConn locations.

Speakers:

• Michael Bradford – Vice Provost for Faculty, Staff, and Student Development
• Amayia Cordova – Undergraduate Student in Mathematics & Healthcare Analysis
• Wiley Dawson – Assistant Director, Center for Career Development, Hartford
• Dr. Sandy Grande – Professor of Political Science and Native American & Indigenous Studies
• Dr. Oscar Guerra – Assistant Professor of Film & Video, Stamford
• Rhys Hall '18 (CLAS)– Graduate Student in Sociology
• Khamani Harrison '17 (ENGR) – owner of The Key Bookstore, Hartford
• Dr. Khalilah Hunter-Anderson '08 (MED) - Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine
• Tony Omega '10 (CLAS) – Academic Advisor, Waterbury

2021 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Living Legacy Convocation

The Office for Diversity and Inclusion is happy to announce that Dr. Ibram Kendi, a renowned historian and leading antiracist scholar, will be the keynote speaker at the 2021 MLK Jr. Living Legacy Convocation.

Topic: How to be Antiracist: Implications for Individuals, Institutions and Society

Date: January 21, 2021

Time: 6:00 - 7:30pm

Format: Virtual

Other performances include:-

Spoken Word - Carl Dean Jr.
Musical Performance - Voices of Freedom

We thank Alumni Relations for supporting us with UConn Alumni registration.

2020 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Living Legacy

The Featured Artist is Producer and Musical Director Damien Sneed.

2019 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Living Legacy

The keynote speaker is the Honorable Richard A. Robinson, the first African-American Chief Justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court.

2018 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Living Legacy

Reimagining Equality: Anita Hill