NEWS

Make plans to participate in the city’s annual march, a Dreamweek speaker series and more

Pre-MLK March Worship Service

Head to the annual Martin Luther King Jr. March early for a morning worship service and keynote talk by Cary Clack. Clack is a writer with the San Antonio Express-News who also worked for the offices of Joaquin Castro and former mayor Ivy Taylor. A San Antonio native, Clack interned with the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change and later taught nonviolence workshops in Atlanta. Monday, 8-10 a.m. MLK Academy, 3501 Martin Luther King Drive

Martin Luther King Jr. March

Honor the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. during this 36th annual march on the city’s East Side. There will be an opening ceremony before the march at 10 a.m. as well as post-walk festivities in Pittman-Sullivan Park. Stick around for multicultural performances, food, a health and wellness fair, a kids’ area and more. VIA is offering free rides to the march from both the Freeman Coliseum and St. Philip’s College. Monday, 10 a.m. March begins at 3501 Martin Luther King Drive and ends at 1101 Iowa St.

MLK Day of Service

AmeriCorps celebrates MLK Day nationwide with volunteer service. In San Antonio, there is a community cleanup planned from 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Register to participate here. Omega Psi Phi is also hosting a blood drive in Pittman-Sullivan Park following the march. At Greater Faith Institutional Church, leaders are hosting a food drive to support the San Antonio Food Bank. Donations are being collected prior to the pre-march worship service.

Dreamweek Panel: White Not Quite

A panel of speakers will explore Middle Eastern and North African Americans’ identity and representation—or lack thereof—when it comes to federal and local policies. Panelists include Sara Ismail, a public policy associate with the National Network for Arab American Communities; Howaida Werfelli, executive director of SALVERE Public Health Consultants; and Mojgan Panah, president of the Mehr Foundation. Monday, 6-8:30 p.m. Radius Center, 106 Auditorium Circle

Dreamhour Speaker Series: Bobby Blount, Agosto Cuellar and Hubert Brown

Grab a beer from the dozens on tap and find a seat at The Friendly Spot for this speaker series about community impact being hosted as part of Dreamweek San Antonio. Blount is an engineer by day but has led the San Antonio Area African American Community Fund, founded the Go Public Campaign supporting public schools and served on the Northside ISD School Board. Cuellar is a San Antonio native who is the community engagement manager at Goodwill but he has been recognized for his work in fashion as a self-taught designer. Brown is an artist and songwriter who serves with Stand Up S.A. working to stop violence in the community. It’s a role he’s passionate about after spending time in prison in his early 20s. Monday, 6:30 p.m., 943 S. Alamo St.

 

Christian novelist Jamison Charles saw God’s hand in his invitation to take part in the Martin Luther King Jr. Foundation’s fifth annual Authors Summit.

“I like to say, with something like this, that God’s winking at me,” said Charles, who jumped at the chance to share the story behind “Saved-ish,” his first book.

With Black History Month around the corner, the San Antonio African American Community Archive and Museum has events going on now that explore the Black experience in South Texas. Deborah Omowale Jarmon gives viewers the details on Dream Week events, Black History Month , and the movies being screen for this year’s film series.

DreamWeek offers more than 200 programs during its 17-day citywide summit

SAN ANTONIO – In addition to Monday’s MLK March and Celebration, there are a number of ways to commemorate the MLK holiday and honor the legacy of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

DreamWeek has more than 200 programs during its 17-day citywide summit focusing on tolerance, diversity and equality, as well as civil and civic engagement.

Here is a list of the 2023 DreamWeek events:

DWSA2023 Schedule of Events by Julie Moreno on Scribd

 

In celebration of MLK, San Antonio gears up for DreamWeek

SAN ANTONIO – The Alamo City has kicked off Dream Week with a breakfast Friday morning at The Briscoe.

This year’s theme is identity and representation – a community embracing the facets of its diversity.

There’s more than 200 events planned that run through Jan. 29.

 

Saturday’s event will depict civil rights milestones

SAN ANTONIO – Following the same route for Monday’s MLK March, the Freedom Walk this Saturday will cover a lot of ground over those nearly two miles.

“From Proclamation to Legislation to Manifestation” is the theme of the -second-annual Freedom Walk, a Dreamweek event depicting civil rights milestones.

“The whole point of the Freedom Walk is to focus on (King’s) life and his message,” said Bishop Charles Flowers of Faith Outreach Center International.

Flowers also leads San Antonio in Black, White and Brown, the nonprofit that organized the walk last year.

He said it began after the MLK March went virtual due to COVID-19.

“We just felt like we needed to express our desire to see that dream continue last year,” Flowers said.

Yet he also said having taken part in the MLK March each year, it seemed to him the march had become too political and left-leaning.

“Not only heard it — I’ve seen it. I’ve seen that it has taken on those kinds of characteristics,” Flowers said.

But Dwayne Robinson, chair of the San Antonio Martin Luther King Jr. Commission, said, “Everyone has a right to their own opinion. The size of our march speaks for itself, and it is growing.”

“Those who want to keep doing what they were doing, they’re free to do it,” Flowers said. “Our intention is just to refocus on the life and on the message of Dr. King.”

Flowers said the Freedom Walk would do it by stopping along the way to re-enact four milestones in the struggle for civil rights.

The first will be a re-enactment of the Emancipation Proclamation at Lincoln Park, then proceed to Second Baptist Church.

“It was churches that were bombed. It was spiritual leaders who were lynched and assassinated because the church had a voice,” Flowers said. “It’s time for the church to reclaim its voice, take its moral position to be both the language of light and love to and in the culture.”

More than 400,000 people are expected to fill the streets of San Antonio’s East Side Monday for the in-person return of what is said to be the nation’s largest Martin Luther King Jr. March.

The march, which went virtual in 2021 and was canceled in 2022 amid COVID-19 concerns, is the first since the murder of George Floyd and the racial reckoning that rocked the U.S. that summer.

This year’s march, the 36th, is considered an essential San Antonio experience by many residents; some people travel across the country to walk the Eastside route from MLK Jr. Academy to Pittman-Sullivan Park, where Negro League professional baseball teams once played. The march comes amid the citywide DreamWeek celebration of San Antonio’s Black communities; those events run through Jan. 29.

Marchers will step off at 10 a.m. at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Academy, at 3501 Martin Luther King Drive and head straight down to Pittman-Sullivan Park, where the celebration will officially go until 3 p.m.

At the park, the main stage will host multicultural performances by local artists Cherray Clifton, R&B artist Big Al and The Experience and saxophonist BillyRay Sheppard. There will also be a health and wellness area, youth area with activities, food and merchandise vendor booths.

This year’s celebration is attracting more community support than previous years, said Dwayne Robinson, Martin Luther King Jr. Commission chairman.

The 8th annual Martin Luther King Jr. citywide art contest had over 200 submissions, the largest number the commission had ever had, Robinson said.

IDEA Burke College Prep student Shelby Henderson won the art contest with her digital artwork entitled “No Matter Race Everyone is Equal.” Her entry is being used to visually represent this year’s march.

In 2020, the last in-person MLK march, an estimated 300,000 people participated, according to news reports. Robinson is expecting many more this year.

“My expectations are that if the weather is going to be like this, we’re gonna have over 400,000 people marching,” he said.

This year’s theme for the march, “Together We Can Be THE Dream,” was pitched by Shaunda Hopkins Lohse, who submitted her entry into the theme contest the commission hosted in the fall. Her theme was selected from more than 220 submissions.

“The great Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream, and it is time we work together to be ‘The Dream,’” wrote Lohse in her application. “His dream begins with wanting the nation to hold up to its creed, injustice and oppression to be transformed into an oasis… By voting and being active in our community we can make a difference together to help make Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream a reality.”

Robinson said seeing a diverse group of people of all ages and ethnicities come together for the march is “phenomenal” to see.

“I could feel [Martin Luther King Jr.], but I certainly can feel the presence of my forefathers and foremothers that participated in the sacrifice,” Robinson said.

Robinson said the murder of Floyd and other Black people, including Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery, who was jogging when he was chased down and killed by two white men while another recorded video of his slaying, had a profound effect on him and the Black community in San Antonio.

A jogger himself, Robinson said at the time he was working as then-County Judge Nelson Wolff’s constituent services director, and he would get up before the sun came up to jog around his neighborhood. His fear, he said, was that if he was stopped by law enforcement, he would be treated not as a community member but as “a Black male” at risk for mistreatment — or worse.

While he marches, Robinson said he thinks about future generations and that all human beings are created with certain unalienable rights, such as life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Robinson expressed gratitude to Councilman Jaylen McKee-Rodriguez (D-2), who serves the East Side, Mayor Nirenberg and the rest of the city council for increasing funding for the event up to $300,000 to help pay event costs and cover scholarships for Bexar County students. That money, he said, “will go right back into our community.”

One of the biggest expenses for the march is the main stage, which costs about $120,000, said Robinson. This year, the contract for stage and electrical operations was granted to a local Black, female-owned company headquartered in District 2, Straight Line Management.

Robinson described that achievement as a boost to San Antonio’s Black community, who he said often feel overlooked.

The Black community in San Antonio is unique, Robinson said, because while nationally, Hispanics are considered a minority group, in San Antonio, Hispanics make up almost 66% of residents, while the Black community, at less than 7%, is roughly half of the nationwide average.

“I think African Americans, we feel like we’re a double afterthought. It’s tough,” he said, citing low numbers of Black businesses and homeownership in San Antonio as examples.

How to get there and where to park

Traffic on the East Side will be congested due to the throngs of people making their way to the march.

Marchers can access free bus service courtesy of VIA Metropolitan Transit from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. from two locations, the Freeman Coliseum at 3201 E. Houston St. in Lot 1 or St. Philip’s College at 1801 Martin Luther King Dr. in Lot 22, at the intersection of Montana and Mittman streets.

The drop-off point will be on MLK Drive, just west of Upland Drive.

Return service from the march to the two pick-up locations will be from noon to 3 p.m. from Pittman-Sullivan Park.

 

SAN ANTONIO — DreamWeek is no longer a diverse celebration known only to San Antonio.

It’s gone global. The summit’s reach has grown beyond San Antonio to more than 45 countries that have streamed 200 events.

As the 11th annual event centered on “Identity and Representation” kicks off this week, Mayor Ron Nirenberg said an important part of the city’s international legacy is helping people understand that having difficult dialogue across cultures can solve society’s problems.

“This is a great demonstration of who we are as a compassionate community that reaches across to cultures locally and across the world to help us understand and to live more in harmony with each other,” Nirenberg said.

READ MORE: San Antonio’s MLK march — one of the biggest in the country — returns Monday

The city-wide summit runs Friday through Jan. 29, with more than 200 events at more than 50 venues across San Antonio. The events will include art exhibits, concerts, debates, film screenings, mixers, panel discussions, and symposiums.

“It’s every member of the community who is responsible for DreamWeek,” said founder and CEO Shokare “Sho” Nakpodia. “There’s something extraordinary that’s happening here.”

Author Cynthia Gibbs hosted a showcase featuring Nirenberg and Nakpodia at the Irma & Emilio Nicolas Media Center at Texas Public Radio headquarters. She said each guest could find something they could identify with and feel fully represented.

“That’s the joy about DreamWeek,” Gibbs said. “Not only is it a jewel in San Antonio, but it has extended beyond the walls of this city and gone across the country. Believe me when I say it will have a global impact one day.”

Iranian singer Gola is scheduled to sing at the Mayor’s Ball.

“I’ve always lived my life, but no one else’s life,” she said. “I would love to know everyone’s story, dream and how we can make it come true together.”

DreamWeek 2023 officially starts Friday at 7:30 a.m. with an opening breakfast ceremony at the Jack Guenther Pavilion at the Briscoe, 210 W. Market St. Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai will be the featured speaker. The Mayor’s Ball will take place Jan. 28, a day before the celebration closes.

Nakpodia is creative director of the Mighty Group, a local marketing and design firm. He founded the summit in 2013 in response to a challenge then-Mayor Julían Castro posed to advertising agencies — find a way to highlight San Antonio’s MLK march. The teachings of the late civil rights leader inspired Nakpodia’s vision.

RELATED: Alamo staff will walk in MLK March to honor African American scholar from San Antonio

Donations, sales of branded merchandise and scholarships solicited by the DreamVoice team pay for the event.