MLK Prayer Breakfast Features Award-Winning Filmmaker

On Saturday, January 18, 2014, citizens of Asheville and Buncombe County will celebrate our community’s 33rd annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Prayer Breakfast. The breakfast will be held at 8:30 a.m. in the grand ballroom of the Omni Grove Park Inn.

Keynote speakers for the gathering will be a remarkable pair of activists: attorney and filmmaker Dawn Porter, director and producer of the award-winning film Gideon’s Army; and one of the dedicated public defenders featured in her documentary, attorney Travis Williams of Gainesville, GA. The film follows three such attorneys in the Deep South during their daily mission to counsel hundreds of defendants through the strained criminal justice system.

Through their work every day, Ms. Porter and Mr. Williams help bring our society ever closer to fulfilling the ideals and philosophy espoused by Dr. King.

Through a collaboration with UNC Asheville, Gideon’s Army will be screened in a free public showing the evening before the breakfast. The screening, followed by a question-and-answer session with Ms. Porter and Mr. Williams, will be held Friday, January 17 at 7 p.m. at Lipinsky Auditorium on the university campus.

Tickets to the breakfast are $25 for adults ($30 after December 31), $35 for patrons, and $15 for youth 12 and under. Tickets are available online at www.mlkasheville.org or by calling (828) 335-6896.

In addition to the breakfast and the free film screening, the MLK weekend will include a peace march and rally on Monday, January 20, beginning at St. James AME Church at 11:30 a.m. followed by the march to City-County Plaza at noon; and a candlelight ceremony honoring the recipient of the 2014 Martin Luther King award, to be held at Nazareth First Baptist Church at 6 p.m. on January 20. All events other than the breakfast are free.

For more information, please call MLK Association chair Oralene Simmons at (828) 281-1624.