Prelude to MLK week: old-style gospel at Fellini's #9, and more

Martin Luther King Jr. Day is January 20, but for days before and after, events across town and at UVA are being held to celebrate Dr. King's legacy, including an afternoon of gospel at Fellini's #9 on the DTM.

Over at UVA, author and radio host Michael Eric Dyson, two-time NAACP Image Award winner, and a host for a NPR program “The Michael Eric Dyson Show” will give a keynote address. On the DTM, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Rita Dove, who was also Poet Laureate for Virginia and the United States, will also be celebrated at the Paramount Theater, where they'll be showing a documentary about the poet. Over at the Carver Recreation Center on January 20 starting at 1pm, enjoy speakers, performers, and music in celebration of Dr.King, and later that evening head over to The Bridge for a night of music, poetry, drama, and artwork on the theme of creative non-violence.

And, of course, there will be gospel music. On the DTM, be sure to check out the Mt. Pisagh Baptist Church Gospel Choir from Orange County at Fellini's #9 on Sunday, January 19 at 2pm, being held in honor of MLK Day. They'll be joined on piano by Betty Jo Dominick of the celebrated trio Red and the Romantics.

"We'll be doing old-style Black gospel songs around the piano," says Dominick, who has performed with as many as 12 members of the church in the past "It's very free form, and its really wonderful. "

What better way to get into the spirit of the MLK Celebration week than with some brunch and some powerful gospel music that will lift that spirit. Everyone on the DTM could use a little of that. Peace & Love.