How to Celebrate MLK Day Locally

Martin Luther King Jr. Day is Jan. 16, and the will celebrate starting today.

A ceremony and luncheon will take place from noon to 1:30 p.m. in the Marshall Student Center Ballroom, according to a USF press release. It will feature speakers Raymond Arsenault, USF St. Petersburg professor and award-winning author of Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice, and guest Rev. Bernard Lafayette, Jr., civil rights activist and educator who participated in the 1961 Freedom Ride seeking to end segregation in the south.

On Jan. 17, there will be a Candlelight Vigil with Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity from 7 to 8 p.m. on the USF MLK Plaza.

On Jan. 18, Freedom Riders, a powerful two-hour documentary film based on Arsenault’s book will be shown in the MSC Oval Theater at 8 p.m.

And on Jan. 19 from 8 to 9:30 p.m. in the Marshall Student Center Ballroom, there will be an MLK Convocation with guest lecturer Marc Lamont Hill, one of the nation’s leading hip-hop generation intellectuals, a social justice activist, educator, television show host and author, the release states. Hill’s work covers topics such as culture, politics and education, and appears in major media outlets, for which he also provides regular commentary.

Additionally, USF’s Stampede of Service, an annual tradition created in 2006 to commemorate Martin Luther King Day, will take place on Jan. 14. More than 3,000 students are anticipated to volunteer to work with an estimated 48 community service organizations, according to the release.

For more information, visit www.ctr.usf.edu/multicultural.

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will be closed Jan. 16 in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, according to a press release from Mike Dunn, the city’s public information officer.

There will be no residential trash collection or curbside recycling that day, the release states. Residents should save their recycling items for pickup the following Monday. Commercial garbage collection will not be affected by the holiday.

The after-hours, holiday and emergency number for is 813-506-6590.

The and also will be closed, the release states.

The will be open Jan. 16 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, call 813-506-6600.