Human Relations Committee

Martin Luther King, Jr, Planning Committee for January 18, 2026 Meeting on June 4, 2025 at the Unitarian Universalist Society of Laconia, 172 Pleasant St. Present: Faith Pakasuk, Anne Ward, and Rev. Judith Wright Unable to be present : Matt Soza and Maria Mutusi Meeting began at 5:30 pm and ended at 6:30 pm. Discussion : Possible sites for the celebration discussed. Rev. Judith had briefly had a conversation with Rev. Eliza Tweedy about the possibility of using the UCC’s sanctuary. Rev. Eliza thought this was a good possibility. Faith is in the process of checking out the High School auditorium. Matt had messaged us that he checked out the Opera House and he did not think it was a good site. The possibility of the social hall at St. Andre Bessant was suggested by Anne, and Rev. Judith will try to contact them. We all agreed that the Belnap Mill 3rd floor is too small for what we want to do this year. Rev. Judith presented the idea of having some scripted playlets in between the musical pieces. She has been reading Jonathan Eig’s Pulitzer Prize winning biography of King entitled King: A Life, and she has identified some passages that would work well for creating a script. In addition, Faith spoke about a dialogue between Malcolm X and Rev. King, that she will look for. We also want to look at King’s own writings, including his speech just before his assassination of “I’ve been to the Mountain top.” We are hoping to visit the UCC congregation on Monday June 9th. We, at the time of this writing, are not sure if we can also visit the High School and St. Andre Bessant on the 9th. We were hopeful that Maria Mutesi would join us on Zoom, but she did not come. Faith tells us that Maria is a wonderful dancer and that possibly she could perform a dance as part of our celebration with one or two other people. We hope Maria will join us when we meet next. We did not set a date for our next meeting, but Rev. Judith will let Nancy Brown know for posting when we know. Respectfully submitted by Rev. Dr. Judith Wright, Chair