Join us for our virtual MLK Night of Culture event in celebration of Martin Luther King Day, January 18, at 6 p.m. This year’s theme honors the men of the 1968 Memphis Sanitation Strike who marched down Beale Street with protest signs that read “I Am a Man” demanding change against unfair labor practices and to be treated with dignity.
Enjoy live painting presentations and poetry/spoken word performed by local artists and featured poets: Theron Wilkerson, Kidd John, Satchel Page a.k.a. “The Ugly Poet”, and C. Liegh McInnis. Live music will be performed by award-winning saxophonist Tiger Rogers. The program will stream live from the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum Facebook page.
Theron Wilkerson is a poet, producer, and a historian who currently teaches African American studies and AP US history at Murrah High School in Jackson. He is the founder of Wilkabergg Productions, a multimedia business with an emphasis on Mississippi art, history, politics, and black culture in the South. Wilkerson has published poetry, book reviews, and articles in several literary journals. He received his BA in history from Jackson State University and an MA in African American studies from Georgia State University.
A graduate of the University of Southern Mississippi, John Kidd (Kidd John) hails from Decatur and is a spoken word artist, hip hop lyricist, and freelance writer. Kidd began writing poetry and lyrics at a young age. He published his first poetry book, Black, Bold, Beautiful, but Still Not Free in 2016 and is the founder of iKidduNot Entertainment.
C. Liegh McInnis is an established poet, short story writer, editor, and serves as an instructor of English at Jackson State University. He is the author of several collections of poetry, literary criticism, and short fiction. McInnis has received recognitions for his literary work including First Runner-Up for the Amiri Baraka/Sonia Sanchez Poetry Award and also received an invitation by the NAACP to the Inaugural Poetry Reading celebrating President Barack Obama’s 2009 election in Washington, D.C. He has presented papers at numerous national conferences and has been published in other literary journals and anthologies. McInnis is the former publisher and editor of the Black Magnolias Literary Journal and currently manages the Psychedelic Literature Literary Journal in Clinton.
Known as “The Ugly Poet,” Satchel Page is a writer, rapper, author, and spoken word performer with Jamaican and African roots. He has been writing and reciting poetry for over twenty years. Page published a volume of poetry titled Beautiful Thoughts From The Ugly Poet in 2006, and published poems and essays in the Psychedelic Literature Literary Journal. Page has three rap albums under the stage name James Crow.