Lighting up the Night on Jan. 20 to Honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

The Meadowland Park Conservancy and the South Orange-Maplewood Community Coalition on Race plan to fill Meadowland Park with the largest display of MLK Day luminaries in SOMA on January 20.  Besides the luminaries at the park, located at 5 Mead Street in South Orange, there will be other lighting displays and video installations.

A canned food drive is part of the event, with every luminary in the park weighted down by canned food, which will be donated to a local food pantry after the event. Those who wish to donate canned food may drop the cans off at the Skate House at the duck pond starting at 2 p.m.  that day.  A ceremonial lighting with local officials will begin at 5 p.m. and attendees are invited to wander the park to experience the installation.

Luminaries will also be lighted throughout town that evening as part of the Coalition’s annual luminary project, in which the Coalition invites the community to place the luminaries outside their homes or businesses as the sun sets on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day. According to CCR Executive Director Nancy Gangier, the goal is for thousands of homes in SOMA to be lit up as a sign of hope, sanctuary, peace, and solidarity with Dr. King’s vision of the Beloved Community.

“The Luminary Project asks people to take a moment to reflect on Dr. King’s legacy and call to service and to share that moment with neighbors,” Gangier said in release posted on the CCR website.  “Dr. King’s Beloved Community is a global vision in which all people can share in the wealth of the earth. In the Beloved Community, poverty, hunger, and homelessness will not be tolerated. Racism and all forms of discrimination,  bigotry and prejudice will be replaced by an all-inclusive spirit of sisterhood and brotherhood.”