Thanks to the civic engagement and diligence of Yvonne Curry and Dayton Daily News stringer Meredith Moss, today’s (Sunday 5/19) edition includes a review of the Dr Margaret Peters’ Martin Luther King, Jr Art and Essay Contest and the exhibit of winning entries now hanging in the lobby gallery of the Dunbar Welcome Center, at the corner of Edison and N Dunbar Streets.
Ms Moss interviewed Dr Peters, a renown community historian and educator who is also the founder of the Paul Laurence Dunbar Branch of ASALH. Dr Peters is a Life Member of ASALH and brought their national conference to Dayton. Our ASALH-Dunbar Branch members have served as volunteer docents and program planners for the center since April 2015, and are credited for helping expand visibility and welcoming over 4,000 visitors in 2018.
The exhibit will be onsite during Dunbar Days, June 29-30 — a community birthday celebration for the internationally famous poet. Both days will include grilled foods, cake and ice cream. Saturday’s focus is Dunbar’s poetry and music inspired by his works. Sunday is Youth Day and will include the opportunity to earn the unique National Park Service Jr Ranger Dunbar Patch, 19th centuries games and chores, a poetry inspired art workshop based on the Peters/King exhibit, and tours of the Dunbar House — which in 1938 became the first state memorial dedicated to an African American in the entire United States.
The Dunbar Center is open Friday through Sunday, 10am to 4pm, with the last House tour scheduled for 3:30pm. In addition to house tours, the center includes 3 galleries of information and artifacts and a short bio-film of Dunbar’s life. Access is free, thanks to the National Park Service’s administration and the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park.