The community is invited to enjoy a positive and uplifting experience during the Early Morning Worship Program. Presented by the San Antonio Martin Luther King, Jr. Commission, the event features contemporary and traditional musical artists, inspirational and motivational dances and spoken word performances.
Free and open to the public.
Keynote Speaker: Cary Clack
Born and raised in San Antonio, he’s a graduate of St. Gerard High School. Graduate of St. Mary’s University (1985) with a B.A. in Political Science. In the summer of 1984, was a Scholar-Intern at the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change where I studied nonviolence and wrote CNN commentaries for Coretta Scott King. From 1989 to 1995 I would return to Atlanta to teach nonviolence workshops to high school and college students. In 1994 was given a bi-weekly column by the San Antonio Express-News and in 1995 was hired full-time as a reporter and columnist. In 1998 became the first Black Editorial Board for the Express-News (and any San Antonio daily.) In 1998 became the first Black metro columnist in the paper and city’s history. A collection of columns, “Clowns and Rats Scare Me” was published in 2009 by Trinity University Press. In 2011, left the paper to join Joaquin Castro’s first congressional campaign as communications director. Upon his election, served as Congressman Castro’s district director. I also worked for San Antonio Mayor Ivy Taylor as her communications director and for Merced Housing Texas in community engagement. Inducted into Texas Institute of Letters in 2017. Also been published in the New York Times, Texas Monthly, Texas Observer, and Truly Adventurous. Story I wrote for Truly Adventurous was included in “Best American Sports Writing of 2021. In December of 2019, after an eight-year-absence from journalism, returned to the San Antonio Express-News as a columnist and member of the Editorial Board. In 2021, won the Texas Associated Press Managing Editors Star Opinion Writer of the Year. In 2022, won the Texas Associated Press Managing Editors Award for Editorial Writing. Co-Chair of the Coretta Scott King Scholar-Interns Alumni Association which was recently announced by Bernice King. A new collection of his columns, “Sometimes a Mystery,” will be published in September by Trinity University Press. He has also edited the first anthology of Black Texas writers, “The Kind of Light That’s Always Shined,” which will be published by Texas A&M University Press as part of the Wittliff Collections’ Book Series in 2024.
