Contact: Mary Margaret Colliver or Jennifer T. Allen

The celebration gets under way at 7:30 a.m. Jan. 17 with the 11th annual Unity Breakfast in the Bluegrass Ballroom of the Lexington Center. Tickets are $15 per person and reserved tables of 10 may be purchased for $150 each. To purchase tickets or for more information, call (859) 263-8819. The breakfast is sponsored by the Alpha Beta Lambda Chapter Education Foundation of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc.

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Jan. 14, 2005) -- Michael Eric Dyson, author, professor, public intellectual, and ordained Baptist minister, will be the keynote speaker at the 2005 Martin Luther King Jr. Day program Monday, Jan. 17, at Heritage Hall in downtown Lexington.

Dyson was named one of the nation’s “50 most inspiring African Americans” by Essence magazine and has been dubbed by the Philadelphia Inquirer as “a major American thinker and cultural critic.” He has written 10 books in 10 years, ranging from works on cultural criticism, race theory, religious thought, philosophical reflection and gender, and sexual studies, and is currently a Visiting Distinguished Professor of African-American Studies at Columbia University. Before his success, Dyson was a teen father on welfare in his native Detroit and worked in several factories before starting college at 21. Author Nathan McCall once called him “a street fighter in suit and tie.”

The celebration gets under way at 7:30 a.m. Jan. 17 with the 11th annual Unity Breakfast in the Bluegrass Ballroom of the Lexington Center. Tickets are $15 per person and reserved tables of 10 may be purchased for $150 each. To purchase tickets or for more information, call (859) 263-8819. The breakfast is sponsored by the Alpha Beta Lambda Chapter Education Foundation of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc.

The annual Freedom March departs at 10 a.m. from Heritage Hall on West Main Street; the celebration continues with the Commemorative Program at 11 a.m. in Heritage Hall. The event is co-sponsored by the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government and University of Kentucky, with help from businesses and community organizations throughout the city.

Also in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the UK School of Music presents “A Celebration of African-American Music,” part of the Uniquely American concert series, at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 17 in the Singletary Center for the Arts Recital Hall. The performance includes a variety of music by African Americans, including Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Duke Ellington, and David Baker. The concert also highlights traditional spirituals. Tickets are $10 for general admission, $5 for students, and can be purchased by calling the Singletary Center box office at (859) 257-4929. For more information, visit the Department of Music Web site.

For more information about the Freedom March, commemorative program or if special accommodations are needed by attendees, contact Terry Allen at (859) 257-8927 or tallen@uky.edu.