The 2025 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Celebration will be held from Jan. 18-25 this year, providing an opportunity for the St. Cloud community to join together for the 13th consecutive year to honor Dr. King’s legacy.
The annual celebration is made possible by St. Cloud State University partnering with the City of St. Cloud, along with local organizations like CentraCare, Granite Partners, Paramount Center for the Arts, Great River Children’s Museum and College of St. Benedict & St. John’s University.
This year’s theme is Our Beloved Community: Empowering the Dream.
“The MLK Community Celebration showcases how St. Cloud and the surrounding community can come together,” said Chocoletta Simpson, Vice President for Equity and Inclusion & Title IX Coordinator at SCSU. “Dr. King reminds us that positive change is about persistence, effort, and action. A true sentiment of this community is how they actively engage and commit to striving to be a beloved community, a community in which every member is well-fed, loved, and financially sustainable.”
Events begin with the MLK Day Family Celebration in SCSU’s Atwood Memorial Center on Jan. 18 from 1-4 p.m. Family-friendly activities include planetarium shows, bowling, face painting and more.
A community conversation will kick off the annual MLK Day event in St. Cloud on Jan. 20, with a keynote address coming from Dr. Evelyn Hill. Recipients of the 2025 MLK Celebration Humanitarian Awards and winners of the Dexter R. Stanton Essay and Visual Art Contest will be announced.
The week’s events also include an MLK Spirit Day worship celebration at Salem Lutheran Church on Jan. 19, MLK Night at the Paramount on Jan. 22 and a financial empowerment class on Jan. 25. All events are free and open to the public.
