On Saturday, October 1, 2022, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Center, in collaboration with Reliant, hosted its first-ever Hispanic Heritage Festival in celebration of National Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15-October 15).
Over 450 attendees enjoyed a variety of local retail and informational vendors, live entertainment, free food, and giveaways. The Kid Zone activities included face painting, balloon art, arts and crafts, bounce house, and hamster ball play area.
Special guests included Ballet Folklórico Ollimpaxqui; the Cristo Rey Dallas College Prep Aesthetic Literacy students; Ariana Zuniga, Zumba Instructor; Councilman Adam Bazaldua (District 7); Councilwoman Jaynie Shultz (District 11), and Dr. Jose Dela Cruz, MLK Advisory Board Member (District 11).
Special thanks to the students who participated in the art display, which will be on display at the MLK, Jr. Community Center until October 15. Participating schools included KIPP Truth Academy, A.W. Brown Middle School, Solar Preparatory for Girls, KIPP Pleasant Grove, Cristo Rey Dallas College Prep, Spruce High School, MLK, Jr. Arts Academy, and Dallas Christian High School.
Community Partners included Reliant, LIRA, Miles of Freedom, HELP, Oncor, Dallas Black Chamber of Commerce, Dallas Public Library, Empowering the Masses, Dallas Civil Rights Museum, Dallas Park and Recreation, and Dallas Fire Department. Breakfast was sponsored by DFW Voices for Education. Music was provided by DJ Trikky.
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An amazing festival. Thank you for organizing and educating us about our Hispanic Heritage. Loved it all. I would like to recommend to the planning committee to pay close attention to the Fair Park calendar because larger events hosted by your neighbors can get all of the publicity and many community people won’t know about the MLK festival. Also with so much traffic on MLK Blvd. it discourages some to want to stay home and avoid the heavy traffic. PV/Grambling and Tex/OU gams should always be avoided if we want neighborhood people to attend. So see you next year. Thanks.