A Birthday Celebration for Dr. King

WHEN: Thursday, January 15, 2026 @ 1:00 PM EST · Live Online

On January 15, we gather to honor the birthday and living legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.—not only in remembrance, but in renewed commitment to service, justice, and the Beloved Community he envisioned.

For more than seven years, this celebration has been shaped by music, spirit, and action through the powerful presence of Pato Banton and Antoinette Rootsdawtah. Their music has carried Dr. King’s teachings into hearts and communities, reminding us that service is not an obligation, but a joyful and creative expression of love.

This year, we widen the circle to honor not only their musical contributions, but the full arc of their service, deeply grounded in the living philosophy of Ubuntu—
 

“I am because we are.”

We will uplift their journey through celebrating the film "The Spirit of Ubuntu", which reveals how relationship, responsibility, and shared humanity become pathways for healing and restoration.

Both the film and their humanitarian work—particularly their long-standing engagement with communities in Africa—flow from this same Ubuntu foundation.

Their work stands as a lived expression of Dr. King’s belief that service transcends borders, cultures, and nations, binding humanity together through compassion, dignity, and mutual care.

For the past seven years, this work of the Compassion Games: Survival of the Kindest was supported through a grant partnership with AmeriCorps, a chapter we honor with deep gratitude. While circumstances have shifted, our commitment to Dr. King’s core values has not.

The world has changed.

Yet the moral center of Dr. King’s vision remains steady.

At a time when diversity, equity, and inclusion are being questioned rather than embraced, we choose to affirm them—as essential expressions of the Beloved Community. As Dr. King reminded us,
 

“Everybody can be great, because everybody can serve.”

This 97th birthday celebration serves as the threshold moment into the 40 Days of Peace, beginning with a New Moon Ceremony on January 18 and the Day of Service on January 19 a National Holiday. 

Together, we walk forty days of intention and action, culminating on February 27 with a Global Circle of Light for the Animal Kingdom, aligned with a rare Saturn–Jupiter conjunction—a symbolic call to long-term responsibility, moral courage, and care for all life.

Beloved Community Rising is an invitation to:

• Celebrate Dr. King’s birthday through music, story, and shared purpose
• Honor artists whose lives embody service grounded in Ubuntu
• Prepare ourselves for another year of compassionate action
• Step into a widening circle of care—for people, for communities, and for the living Earth

Dr. King’s legacy is not behind us.

It is rising—through service, through music, and through us.