(RED BANK, NJ) -- With the start of a new year, the T. Thomas Fortune Cultural Center is focused on the words of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., in preparation to celebrate the life of the great civil rights leader.  In collaboration with Two River Theater, the T. Thomas Fortune Cultural Center will present, "Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?" on Saturday, January 10, 2025 at Two River Theater (Studio-A). The event begins at 3:00pm.

The special guest speaker will be, Dr. Aaron X. Smith, an Assistant Professor of Africology and African American Studies at Temple University.  He is the editor of “Afrocentricity in Afrofuturism,” a compilation of essays.  There will be presentations made by the Fortune Tellers, youth tour guides at the T. Thomas Fortune Cultural Center, along with the Diversity Club from the Ranney School in Tinton Falls, and the New Jersey Orators.  A recording of the Constitutional Sound Bath is courtesy of the Friends of the Howe House, in Montclair.

In honor of what would be Dr. King’s 96th Birthday, on January 15, the event takes its title from the last book Dr. King wrote before he was assassinated on April 4, 1968.  Still, today we beg to ask the very same question.  Where do we go from here, on this 250th Anniversary of America?   In his words, Dr. King tells the stinging truth about America.

 “Ever since the birth of our nation white America has had a schizophrenic personality on the question of race,” said Dr. King.  “It is called the ‘white backlash’.  The same search for rationalization, the same lack of commitment that has always characterized white America on the question of race.”

Two River Theater is located at 21 Bridge Avenue in Red Bank, New Jersey.

“As a Black American, I wonder when this country will grow-up and be rational about race as an artificial social construct that has no validity in today’s society,” said Gilda Rogers, Executive Director of the T. Thomas Fortune Cultural Center. “It’s counterproductive to creating a more perfect union.”

This free community event is meant to uplift the community to understand that love is the best defense against what we see happening in this nation today.  This is why young people are involved, because adults need to model for them what Dr. Martin Luther King preached about, and that was LOVE.