Help bring light to Meadowland Park and our community to celebrate Dr. King’s legacy on Monday Jan 19th at 5PM.
Meadowland Park will be filled with the largest display of MLK Day luminaries in SOMA. In partnership with the Community Coalition on Race (CCR), the park will glow with luminaries, special lighting, and video installations using equipment donated by SOPAC, with generous financial support from Invisible Man.
Each luminary will be weighted with canned food, which will be donated to a local food pantry after the event. Community members are invited to bring cans of food to the Skate House starting at 2 pm on January 19, join a ceremonial lighting with local officials at 5 pm, and then wander the park to experience the installation.
To order CCR luminaries, click here.
More about CCR’s programming earlier in the day on January 19:
The South Orange Maplewood Community Coalition on Race invites the community to gather for its 25th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Observance on Monday, January 19, 2026, at 2 pm, as the community honors Dr. King’s legacy and renews a shared commitment to equity and inclusion. This year’s theme, “Do Not Erase Our History,” calls on participants to remember that truth, memory, and historical understanding are essential to building the Beloved Community.
The observance will feature keynote speaker Dr. Khalil Gibran Muhammad, the inaugural Professor of African American Studies and Public Affairs at Princeton University, director of the Institutional Antiracism and Accountability Project, and a nationally recognized voice on the intersections of race, history, and justice. The program will also include readings from Dr. King’s writings, performances by the Columbia High School Chorus and Special Dance, and reflections from local clergy.
Following the observance, attendees are invited to visit the exhibit created by Durand Hedden House and Garden titled “Slavery in New Jersey: A Troubled History.” The exhibit explores the history of enslaved people in New Jersey from the beginnings of Dutch settlement in the 17th century through the end of the Civil War.