MLK Day Ceremony Spotlights Local Students, Artists
January 21, 2026
• On Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the Needham community channeled its tributes to the late civil rights activist through the arts.
In a program titled, “We the People,” local high school students and area artists highlighted Black authors and poets, dancers, musicians and creatives, both past and contemporary.
Following the five-part ceremony, community leaders reflected on the event, and closing performances imparted messages of resilience, hope and love — all of which formed central tenets of King’s work.
As the nation approaches its 250th anniversary, event organizer and NHS art teacher Kate Jellinghaus said the program aimed to honor the people who shaped the United States and “have opened up spaces of greater freedom of expression,” including King.
“The idea is paying homage somewhat to all of those people who came before us who have helped to make our lives richer and more equitable and freer,” Jellinghaus said in an interview.
The event, hosted at the Needham High School auditorium, was sponsored by the Needham Diversity Initiative, Human Rights Committee, Interfaith Clergy Association and the Needham Public Schools.
Speakers quoted from King, Langston Hughes, Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman, Emily Dickinson and others, while some students read their own original works. The ceremony spotlighted writers, activists, innovators, naturalists and artists, and speaking portions were bookended by musical and puppetry performances. Art students designed and created a series of sculptural objects themed to the program, including large-scale animal heads, birds with flapping wings, a cluster of ears and a big pencil.
The NHS Bomb Squad Step Group performed throughout the ceremony, as did members of OrigiNation Cultural Arts Center, a nonprofit organization in Boston. The school’s jazz quintet and chorale also participated.
About 80 NHS students were involved with the event, Jellinghaus said, 50 of whom were on stage.
Giselle Millien, co-president of the NHS Black Student Union, said Monday’s ceremony “provides opportunities for NHS students to bring their own creative voice.” Raine Edmonds-Sanchez, also co-president, read an excerpt from King’s 1967 book, “Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?”
“Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars,” Edmonds-Sanchez read. “Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”
Damian Acevedo reflected on how he’s perceived by others in school through his spoken word piece, “People’s Assumptions.” Students Mahelissa Blanchard, Sewanu Dansu and Amina Kamara read from their poem titled “Proof.”
“You pressed your curls flat because the world pressed you harder. The pain, the pressure, the worries… She said it was just hair, but I learned what fear can burn into a strand,” the poem read. “It wasn’t just once. It was a schedule. Straight hair for eyes, for work, for people that judged. Curly hair for private rooms, from years that whispered, ‘do you still belong?’”
Needham Public Schools students are expected to, among other things “ensure equity and an anti-racist, anti-discriminatory culture” within the district, according to a policy Superintendent Dan Gutekanst shared at the ceremony.
“We make mistakes. Our work isn’t perfect,” he said. “And yet, every day, we show up and we join together, just as we are today, to make sure that the ideals of Martin Luther King and all those who came before him and after him are embedded in the practices and the classrooms of the Needham Public Schools.”
Rev. Nicholas Morris-Kliment of Christ Episcopal Church and Dr. Huma Farid, a member of Needham’s Muslim community, discussed the importance of finding commonalities — and doing so simply though listening to one another.
“Today, we are here together to keep alive Dr. King’s dream of creating a beloved community. It cares for and supports one another. Dr. King famously said, ‘we must learn to live together as brothers’ — and sisters,” Morris-Kliment added. “We are both honored to live and work in this community, and we invite people of all faiths and none to do the work of building beloved community.”
After a recent visit to the King memorial in Washington, D.C., state Sen. Becca Rausch told the audience that “we still very much are fighting the same fights that Dr. King fought decades and decades ago,” ones that are foundational to the country’s existence.
Rausch encouraged attendees to draw inspiration from King by supporting one’s community, speaking one’s truth and discovering the humanity within others and oneself.
“These are hard times, so we can try to focus on whatever happens to be the next right thing,” she said.
Jellinghaus said she hoped the commemoration would serve as a community-building opportunity and allow attendees to find “that sense of fellowship with one another.” Prior to Monday, she reflected on King’s work and message of peaceful protest and speaking out against injustice.
“We come together on this day hopefully keeping that memory alive, both of his legacy and his personhood, but also all of the other people who are part of that movement and that time of the Civil Rights movement, but then all the way up through today,” she said, “people who are working towards greater social justice and equity in our society and freedom.”
