(NEWARK, NJ) -- The City of Newark's 36th Annual "Sing in Praise of King" will be held on Monday, January 22, 2024 in Newark Symphony Hall (1020 Broad Street). Doors open at 6:00pm, showtime is 7:00pm. The Department of Recreation, Cultural Affairs, and Senior Services will present this event.

This observance’s keynote speaker will be Rev. Al Sharpton, a longtime civil rights and social justice activist, Baptist minister, radio talk show host, and TV personality.

In the wake of racially motivated killings in New York, he led protest marches to demand strong prosecution of the suspects and, in 1991, founded the National Action Network, a nonprofit civil rights organization to address such issues as racial profiling, police brutality, and poverty. He has run for the U.S. Senate, New York’s mayoralty, and the U.S. presidency, all as a Democrat. He also serves as an analyst on MSNBC, and has written four books.

“It is a high honor to welcome Reverend Sharpton to our Sing in Praise of King event this year – at a time when we must ramp up diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, and fight for voting rights, affirmative action, and other cornerstones of civil rights and democracy,” said Mayor Baraka. “It is appropriate also to feature the caliber of talent evident in performances by Crystal Aikin and Bishop Hezekiah Walker, because this is a day to celebrate how far we’ve come. I hope all of us take this day as a crucial opportunity to stop and examine exactly where we are on the long arc of the moral universe – and exactly what we are doing to bend it toward justice.”

The City of Newark has been celebrating the life and legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for more than three decades. Each year this observance draws large audiences attracted to its powerful oratory, songs of praise, and musical performances. Recent keynote speakers have included Academy Award Winning Actor and Filmmaker/Director Forest Whitaker, activist Rev. Jesse Jackson, Princeton University Professor and Author Dr. Cornel West, and Dr. King’s youngest child, Rev. Bernice King.

Dr. King continues to have a massive impact on the City of Newark and New Jersey in general. One of Dr. King’s final speeches before his tragic death was delivered at South Side (now Malcolm X Shabazz) High School.

There will be special performances by Crystal Aikin and Bishop Hezekiah Walker.

Ms. Aikin is a gospel singer and 2007 winner of the reality TV competition show “Sunday Best,” which earned her a Christian Music Award. She won the 2010 Stellar New Artist of the Year Award, and has released three albums.

Brooklyn native Bishop Walker is a popular gospel music singer, and pastor of Love Fellowship Tabernacle (LFT), where the number of high-profile secular hip-hop artists attending his services has made him known as “the Hip-Hop Pastor.” Hezekiah & The LFT Church Choir’s Love Is Live! album (2001) were nominated for an NAACP Image Award for Best Gospel Artist, Traditional, and a Grammy Award for Best Gospel Album By Choir Or Chorus. Bishop Walker also won a Grammy with The Love Fellowship Crusade Choir for Live in Atlanta at Morehouse College in 1994.

For Newark Sing in Praise of King ticket information, contact the Department of Recreation, Cultural Affairs, and Senior Services at (973) 733-5460.