Salem Community
Martin Luther King Jr. Day Celebrations
Know before you go
In-person event
Location: Create Space Studios, Vanessa Platacis: Taking Place exhibition gallery
FREE
All visitors enjoy free admission for the day!
Same-day tickets are required for the collagraph workshop.
Programming begins at 11 am.
Spaces of Welcoming and Belonging: Celebrating the Legacy of Black Leadership, Art and Activism
Join us for a free day at PEM as we celebrate and reflect on the legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the upcoming exhibition Edmonia Lewis: Said In Stone.
Artist Edmonia Lewis moved continually throughout her life, living in upstate New York, Ohio, Boston, London and Rome, searching for a place where she could thrive as an individual and artist. We invite visitors to reflect on their own identity and search for community, drawing inspiration from Lewis’ life as well as the enduring ideals of justice, equality and inclusion embodied by leaders like King.
North Shore Youth Community Mural
10 am–5 pm | Main Atrium
In partnership with Raw Art Works (RAW), young artists across Salem and Lynn have been collaborating on a large-scale community mural, reflecting on ways they hope to embody the idea of belonging. What words would you leave behind for the next generation, written in the history books like Martin or carved into stone like Edmonia?
Art Making Workshop: Collagraphs
11 am–3 pm | Create Space Studios
Same-day registration required; tickets available at the Information desk. Four sessions with a maximum of 15 participants per session: 11 am, noon, 1:30 pm and 2:30 pm.
We invite you to contribute your own words for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Make your own collagraph printmaking plate or find one made by a community member that speaks to you. Add your words to a second mural and take a print home as a keepsake.
Short Film Screening
11 am–3 pm | Morse Auditorium
Enjoy selections by the filmmakers of Real to Reel, RAW’s long-running youth film school. Our featured film is My Black Is… RAW Art Works filmmakers Miguel Valdez and Eunice Beato showcase young women working to redefine what their Black identity means to them.
Other films include:
Homecoming – Ismaris Ocasio
The Skin I’m In – Rajaiah Jones
The Greatest Woman I Know – Rajaiah Jones
The Missing Element – Michaela Olabisi
Black Girl Magic – Michaela Olabisi
Lael’s Shield – Lael Mabikas
Just Play – Andrys Omar Galan
Misunderstood Masterpiece – Rauliz Paez
Home Crew – Real to Reel & RAW Staff
This screening brings together selected works from across the program’s history. Together, these films reflect Real to Reel’s enduring commitment to uplifting youth voices, artistic excellence and storytelling as a tool for belonging, resistance and transformation.
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