The M-Theatre production of The Last Minstrel Show by John D. Davidson concludes its run tonight with another sold-out performance.  The dinner-theatre show is a musical treatment of the 1920 lynchings of three black circus workers in Duluth. This 5th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day production is aimed at promoting diversity and serving as an entertaining way to educate on culture and history.

Hamilton will commemorate Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday with several campus and community events in January.

On January 17-19 a group of students in M-Theatre performed Our Lady of 121st Street as part of Hamilton’s 4th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day dinner-theatre commemoration. In this short video, M-Theatre director Mark Cryer and Allen Harrison, associate dean of students for diversity and accessibility, reflect on why such productions are important not only in promoting diversity but serve as an entertaining way to educate on culture and history.

On Saturday, Jan. 22, more than 120 students gathered for Hamilton’s 13th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Service Day. The community service event, run by the Hamilton Association for Volunteering, Outreach and Charity, or HAVOC, sent students to a wide variety of locations across the Utica area, from the Kirkland Town Library to Lutheran Home for the elderly to the Rome Humane Society.

In the sense that every person has a responsibility and an obligation to contribute toward the safety of community, said Drexel University's Dr. John Rich, we are all involved in public health. Dr. Rich has worked to expose the post-traumatic hardships faced by young black men who have fallen victim to violence in their communities. On Jan. 20, Dr. Rich presented a lecture, “Hearing, Humanizing and Healing: Practicing Nonviolence in Public Health,” as part of Hamilton’s Martin Luther King, Jr. commemorative events.

For the fifth year, 26 Hamilton employees spent part of Martin Luther King Jr. Day volunteering at four non-profit organizations in the Utica area.

Hamilton’s 4th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day dinner theatre featured a sold-out presentation of Our Lady of 121st Street by Stephen Adly Guirgis. Directed by Associate Professor of Theatre Mark Cryer, the M-Theatre production is dedicated to providing theatrical works that will both challenge and reaffirm the campus' many perspectives on race, religion and gender. Tuesday's show is a sell-out but seats remain for Wednesday, Jan. 19, in the Fillius Events Barn.