When Gov. Wes Moore steps onto the podium Friday night at the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Awards Dinner, he’ll follow a long line of honorees who have paid homage to the slain civil rights leader.
There will be a King quote, and then a governor known for rhetorical flights will expound on the meaning of those words for today.
Beyond the dinner, Annapolis pays homage to King and the Civil Rights Movement he embodies in the American mind. The nation celebrates his birthday on Monday, a federal holiday.
“The celebration is a very real thing. It is not symbolic or unsubstantial,” said Carl Snowden, a longtime civil rights activist and a lead organizer of the dinner. “But things have changed.”
Moore is Maryland’s first Black governor and Angela Alsobrooks is its first Black U.S. senator. Anthony Brown is the first Black state attorney general and the Legislative Black Caucus in the State House is the largest in the nation.
Shaneka Henson is the first Black state senator from Annapolis, and Everett Sesker is the first Black sheriff in Anne Arundel County.
Maryland became the second state to recognize King’s birthday as a holiday in 1974, when the General Assembly passed legislation by the late Del. Kenneth Webster of Baltimore. President Ronald Reagan signed legislation in 1983 to make it a federal holiday, and it was first officially observed in 1986.
Although there’s no record of King coming to Annapolis, more than 60 monuments, plaques and memorials around the county honor him and other civil rights figures and events.
The Civil Rights Foot Soldiers Memorial on Calvert Street marks the spot where 500 people boarded buses to attend King’s March on Washington in 1963, where he gave his “I Have a Dream” speech.
There is the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial at Anne Arundel Community College, and the Coretta Scott King Memorial Garden in Edgewater.
The Museum of Historic Annapolis will celebrate King’s legacy on Monday by including a new guided tour, “Race and Rights,” free with a $7 ticket to the museum. The tour is at 11:30 a.m. and 2 p.m.
But the dinner is perhaps the best-known example of celebrating King’s legacy. For 38 years, it has recognized scores of people who represent the idea that civic involvement can keep his dream alive.
Moore will accept the annual Courageous Leadership award, but teachers, pastors, artists and others are also honored.
All proceeds from this year’s dinner will help pay for a final memorial to the civil rights era by Snowden and others. Dedicated to King’s contemporary and sometimes rival, Malcom X, it is planned at the Michael Busch Annapolis Library.
Tickets are $100, and after moving to a new location in 2024, the event returns this year to La Fontaine Bleue in Glen Burnie. It’s usually a sold-out event.
Here are some other great things to do in the week through Wednesday.
Text on exhibit
10 a.m. Thursday
The Elizabeth Myers Mitchell Art Museum opens an exhibit that challenges the conventions of visual arts, “Ken Friedman: 92 Events.”
The typed black text on white copy paper represents 60 years of instructional texts by Friedman, a U.S.-born artist and design theorist living in Sweden. They are meant to be read like scripts or musical scores and spur viewers to action.
“Make a phone call to a bird,” Friedman writes in one of the texts. “If you do not know a bird who has a telephone, make a telephone call in which you make bird noises.”
The exhibition also includes a dozen interpretations of the texts by arts programmer Austin Sposato with restaurateur Chip Noland; artists David and Tara Gladden; city planner Eric Leshinsky; exhibit designer Leslie Rose; magazine publisher Robert Haywood; photographer Robert W. Madden; educator Roderick Mincher; musician and radio personality Ruben Dobbs (filmed by Alison Harbaugh); Sammy Young; designer Tom Levine; and artist and teacher Wilfredo Valladares.
Friedman will attend a reception for the exhibit from 6-7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the museum. Admission to the exhibit is free.
Nirvanna on screen
7 p.m. Thursday
The Annapolis Film Club hosts a screening of “Nirvanna: the Band, the Show, the Movie” at Maryland Hall.
The Canadian mockumentary follows a Toronto band that tries to book a show at the Rivoli restaurant, but things go horribly wrong, sending the lead characters back to the year 2008. It is based on a web and television series.
Tickets are $20, plus taxes and fees.
Novel history
11 a.m. Saturday
Tom Guay, a musician, environmentalist and author, will talk about his new novel, “Chesapeake Bound.”
The story of an indentured servant fleeing murder charges in England, the historical fiction is set in colonial Maryland.
Guay will perform fiddle tunes mentioned in the novel during the hourlong talk at the Museum of Historic Annapolis and read from his book.
Admission is $7. Reservations are recommended.
Jam band
9:45 p.m. Saturday
Rickshaw Lizard, an Annapolis jam band popular in clubs across the region, is at Stan & Joe’s Saloon.
Core members Erick Powers, Pete Kaster, and Joe Anderson have been playing original music and covers together since 2011.
Winter run
8 a.m. Sunday
Annapolis Striders is hosting a six-hour run through the trails at Greenbury Point Nature Center.
The Eternal Winter event is free, but a $25 donation is requested to benefit the Annapolis Lighthouse Shelter.
There are no course marshals, no course markers and aid stations, just a course open for running.
Ante up
10 a.m. Monday
Live! Casino & Hotel Maryland will host the 2026 Mid-Atlantic Poker Open, a 15-day tournament.
The tournament features 21 Texas Hold ’em, Omaha and seven-card stud events.
The series includes games for novices to experienced players, offering $1.2 million in guaranteed prize pools. Buy-in runs from $200 to $2,200.
The main event begins Jan. 30 and features a $500,000 prize.
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