This recognition event is co-sponsored by the Office of Queens Borough President Donovan Richards, Jr.
Join us to celebrate the life and legacy of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the importance of engaging youth, and our enduring connection to Dr. King, who spoke at Queens College 60 years ago this coming spring.
Honoree
Arva Rice
President and CEO of the New York Urban League
Arva Rice is a passionate community leader who has dedicated herself to creating pathways to success for young people, with a focus on girls and women. She serves as president and CEO of the New York Urban League. The New York Urban League (NYUL) is leading the way underserved African Americans are educated, employed, and empowered across the five boroughs. For the past 100 years, NYUL has inspired, influenced, and ignited over one million black people to achieve their highest aspirations.
Rice is also interim chair of the Civilian Complaint Review Board, a member of the Women’s Forum and Greater New York Chapter of The Links Incorporated, and trustee at First Corinthians Baptist Church. She is a 2013–2014 Annie Casey Fellow, a national fellowship for government and nonprofit leaders focused on supporting innovation solutions for children. Rice graduated from the Northwestern University and lives in Harlem.
This year’s honoree is Arva Rice, President and CEO of the New York Urban League.
This special program includes a recognition ceremony and keynote address at 3 PM
Performance
Branford Marsalis Quartet
NEA Jazz Master and three-time Grammy Award-winning saxophonist Branford Marsalisis one of the most revered figures in jazz and contemporary music. Marsalis presents a kaleidoscopic range of original compositions, along with jazz and popular classics, all supercharged by his quartet’s extraordinary energy and telepathic musical connection.
This concert is part of KCA’s annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Celebration. For more than a decade, KCA and Queens College have held a special annual event in honor and memory of Dr. King’s legacy and his connection to Queens College, where he delivered a powerful speech from the stage of Colden Auditorium in 1965.
Branford Marsalis Quartet concert at 4 PM.
Queens Borough President
Donovan Richards, Jr.
Donovan Richards, Jr., a lifelong resident of Southeast Queens, was elected Borough President in November 2020.
As a child, he attended Jamaica High School and Redemption Christian Academy before receiving his a degree in Aviation Management from Vaughn College in East Elmhurst.
Following the killing of a close friend during his teenage years, he got involved in his community, holding numerous positions in the City Council before being elected in 2013 to represent Southeast Queens and the eastern Rockaway Peninsula.
As a Council Member, he chaired multiple influential committees, resulting in historic citywide investments in affordable housing, police oversight, clean energy and infrastructure.
As Queens Borough President, he has been a tireless advocate for The World’s Borough, allocating more than $270 million in capital funding across Queens’ schools, cultural institutions, hospitals, libraries, parks and more.
Borough President Richards lives in Rosedale with his wife, Tameeka, and his son, Donovan III.
“The Black National Anthem”
Lift Every Voice and Sing
Lift every voice and sing,
‘Til earth and heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise
High as the listening skies,
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us;
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,
Let us march on ’til victory is won.
Stony the road we trod,
Bitter the chastening rod,
Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;
Yet with a steady beat,
Have not our weary feet
Come to the place For which our fathers died.
We have come, over a way that with tears has been watered,
We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered,
Out from the gloomy past,
‘Til now we stand at last
Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.
God of our weary years,
God of our silent tears,
Thou who has brought us thus far on the way;
Thou who has by Thy might
Led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee,
Lest our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee;
Shadowed beneath Thy hand,
May we forever stand,
True to our God,
True to our native land.
By James Weldon Johnson
(June 17, 1871 – June 26, 1938)
Originally written by Johnson for a presentation in celebration of the
birthday of Abraham Lincoln. This was originally performed in Jacksonville, Florida, by children.