Registration now closed

Avenues of Dreams: Reclaiming MLK Boulevards

MLK Week Screening and Community Discussion

Join us at The Martin Luther King Jr. Library for a special premiere screening and community discussion about the documentary, "Avenues of Dreams: Reclaiming MLK Boulevards."

Avenues of Dreams: Reclaiming MLK Boulevards is a short documentary film that follows the stories of scholars, community organizers, business owners, and others as they reclaim MLK Boulevards around the country. This documentary examines the history behind the naming of the streets, how they can connect and also divide us, and how communities are working to restore the hope of Dr. King’s vision and legacy in their own neighborhoods.

Following the documentary,  Amber Payne will host a community discussion and talk about the inspiration and making of the documentary. Presented in partnership with Black Experience on Xfinity, Comcast NBCUniversal’s Voices of the Civil Rights Movement platform and Tilt Shift Media.

About Amber Payne

Amber Payne is one of the founders of Tilt Shift Media, co-editor-in-chief of The Emancipator, and a 2021 Nieman fellow at Harvard University. In 2015, Amber launched NBCBLK, a section of NBCNews.com dedicated to elevating the conversation around Black identity, social issues, and culture.

About Dana Williams

A specialist in contemporary African American Literature, Dana A. Williams earned her B.A. in English from Grambling State University in Grambling, LA in 1993, her M.A. in 1995 from Howard University, and her Ph.D. in African American Literature from Howard University in 1998. As a recipient of the Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Scholar award in 1999, she was a visiting research fellow at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL. Before returning to Howard University as a faculty member in 2003, Dr. Williams taught at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge for four years. In 2008-09, she was a faculty fellow at the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute at Duke University, and she assumed the chairmanship of the Department in 2009, serving three terms in that position. In 2019, she was appointed as interim dean of the Graduate School and then named permanent dean in 2021.

About Nneka Nnamdi

Nneka N'namdi is Baltimore based entrepreneur engaged in social mission driven business and community wellness work.  She endeavors to apply a mix of traditional African and modern African American social, economic and spiritual practices as a framework for living. As a member of The Living Well team she curates community space for artistic, economic and social ventures.  Skilled in creating healing spaces and teaching practical ways of managing trauma Nneka and her sister Maya Onyango have created SisterGather, events for women of African descent to bond, heal and grow. Her study includes initiation in the practice of IFA, Principles of Trauma Informed Care as well as a Master's in Management with a specialization in Organizational Leadership. Her artistic experience includes West African dance withSankofa Dance Theater, Dishibem, Urban Foli , Wombworks and #BaltimoreGirls. She is a graduate of two of Baltimore's most important educational institutions: Baltimore Polytechnic Institute and Morgan State University. She lives in Upton. It is one of Baltimore's most storied but blighted neighborhoods and her lived experience there has given birth to Fight Blight Bmore, a social and environmental justice tool for residents to identify, report track and remediate blight.

Upcoming events