Ford’s Theatre offers a limited number of discount tickets for patrons younger than 35 for select performances. To see a complete list of those performances click here.

But as the country celebrates the life and legacy of Dr. King on the federal holiday in his honor, that has become a National Day of Service, ‘a day on not a day off’ I find myself reflecting once again on my visit to the MLK Memorial. I don’t remember a single quote and I faintly remember the size of the monument or the expression on his face. I do remember three things very vividly though about my experience.

It was a cool late summer afternoon in Washington. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky. The sun wouldn’t go down for some time after I left the office so I decided to walk down the green of the National Mall beyond the Washington Monument and the World War II Memorial and venture ahead and to the left to see the MLK Memorial with my own eyes. The entire time I wondered what my grandfather and grandmother would have had to say about it if they were still alive.

When I arrived at the Memorial I was impressed by the hush of so many people who were gathered there. Hundreds of people were there but there was not a lot of talking or noise. It was mostly reverence. The most audible noise was the wind, inaudible you knew there were prayers of thankfulness being sent to God. Prayers for a number of reasons. The crowd was young and old, men, women and children and people from all racial and ethnic backgrounds. Quiet. Reflecting. Respectful.

I walked around for a few minutes before I heard someone call my name. It was a friend of one of my dear friends. He was sitting and taking in the monument for himself. He is African American, in his late forties and an out gay man who has lived in a domestic partnership with his life partner for nearly 20 years. We exchanged pleasantries.

I walked a few feet more and I felt a tap on the shoulder. It was a former colleague. She is a white woman, in her mid-thirties. She was there with her husband, an African American man who happened to be wearing his Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity sweater, and their handsome young son who seemed to be enjoying his time with his family and being outdoors. After I spoke to each of them I decided that I would head home.

As I headed out I heard my name called again. This time it was a young lady who once interned in the office next door to mine. She was excited to see me as I had always been a friendly face and offered her guidance when she asked. She explained that she did very well during her first year of college and that this semester she was home in Washington because she was interning in the Office of the Vice President. I was so proud of her.

Those three moments, those three people I saw are what I remember most about my visit to the MLK Memorial. I know that all three of their life experiences were greatly enriched by Dr. King’s work for equality in all areas of life. When we live our best life, love one another and take full advantage of the opportunities to serve and succeed, we each become living monuments honoring Dr. King.

Martin Luther King Day is every day. The true memorial to Dr. King is the way we live our lives.

In cities throughout the United States, streets, boulevards and avenues bearing the name Martin Luther King Jr. often bring to mind words like poverty, segregation, injustice and despair. It is a very stark contrast to the dream that Dr. King was known for promoting. Comedians have joked for years that when you want to find where the poor African American population is located in any major American city you simply have to find your way to MLK and what you find, you may not like.

In the documentary film, The MLK Streets Project this connection, or disconnection between the dream of Martin Luther King Jr. and the reality of MLK streets is explored. Through funding support of One Common Unity and A Nu View filmmaking program, eight Washington, DC high school students, were able to travel across the country and collect video and interviews for the film and produce this documentary. The footage and interviews tell the stories of progress and pause through the eyes of the residents in each city and the lens of these young filmmakers.

The Black Philanthropic Alliance in partnership with Woolly Mammoth Theater and the emerging creative powers of Straight, No Chaser Films will present a screening of The MLK Streets Project along with a community discussion Monday, January 9, 2012 at the Woolly Mammoth Theater, 641 D Street NW from 5:30pm – 8:00pm. The panelists for the community discussion include Rain Pryor, Terrie Freeman, President and CEO of the Community Foundation of the National Capital Region, Ray Bell Jr. of the HOPE Project and Joseph Speight of Friendship Southeast Elementary Academy.

Learn more here.

The Substance & Style 2012 challenge to each Washingtonian is to spend an entire day in a ward of the District of Columbia where you do not reside, work or frequently play. Take the time to get to know and enjoy the city in a new way. From Dupont Circle to Fort Dupont, there are numerous parks to picnic, play or relax in. Art galleries like Honfleur and Morton Fine Art are great examples of the numerous galleries on either side of the Anacostia River that offer visitors visual treasurers. The DC Public Library also offers an array of programs and activities in libraries across the city. Cultural Tourism DC’s Neighborhood Heritage Trails provides self-guided walking tours of neighborhoods including Deanwood, Mount Pleasant, Tenleytown and Barracks Row. The walking tours are directed by signs that provide a great deal of history, stories and photos while you walk and create your own memories In every Ward of Washington, there lies something to enjoy and new people to meet. We simply must seek the opportunities to do so.

Visiting the cultural and civic sites in other neighborhoods can be entertaining, educational and empowering as it also is a chance to support many of the small and locally owned businesses that are the heart of the local economy. Building community and sustaining it requires us to make conscious efforts to shop and support local entrepreneurs. Substance and Style’s charge to you is to expand your “local” in 2012. Don’t just cross the street, cross the river. Spend a day on Barracks Row and an evening on U Street NW.  Reach beyond your ward. Celebrate the diversity of the city. Expand your local!

The Theater Alliance at the H Street Playhouse has brought back their soulful production of Langston Hughes’ vibrant retelling of the Christmas story from an Afro centric point of view in Black Nativity.  Since first being performed on Broadway in December 1961 with an all Black cast the musical that includes traditional Christmas songs with flairs of blues, jazz and gospel has become a holiday tradition in theaters across the country. The production at H Street Playhouse runs through December 31.

On the heels of being recognized with the 2011 National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award the Dance Institute of Washington and their Founding Artistic Director, Fabian Barnes will present their annual Spirit of Kwanzaa Celebration Concerts on December 28 and 29 in the Columbia Heights Education Campus Auditorium.  The concert is an event designed for audiences young and old to learn about the seven principles of Kwanzaa and highlight the collective greatness of local area singers, dancers, poets and musicians.

The small and musty motel room is in direct contrast to the large themes and fresh take on the slain civil rights leader that are explored in the script by Hall. Seldom seen are such dissections of King as a person and not just a pure and political figure. Peering into the room of the motel, the audience relates to a man navigating his own morality and coming to terms with his own mortality. While it is an imagined exchange between two people it offers real questions and thoughts. Hall challenges.

No script could come to life without proper players and under the guide of Leon, Samuel L. Jackson and Angela Bassett shine. Jackson does an outstanding job at playing King, because he never attempts to play the icon that Dr. King was; he chooses instead to lend himself to the role of King as the man he was. The performance of Angela Bassett as the provocative Camae is sans any flaws. Her power as an actress is best exhibited when King asks Camae what she would tell congregations across the country about the next steps necessary in the fight for civil rights.  Bassett as Camae takes you on a ride that you don’t want to get off of as you hang on to her every word. Her fire is matched equally well with the coolness of her costar. Bassett and Jackson are a perfect pair.

Everyone that leaves the theatre leaves with a difference sense of what that man who’d gotten to the mountaintop before us all may have been like and glad that they’d been to The Mountaintop too. This production runs through January 22, 2012.