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NEW MEMBERS: Leaders sworn in at Mahtomedi, White Bear Township PAGE 12
‘Keep moving forward’: Event honors vision, values of MLK Jr. BY RANDY PAULSON STAFF WRITER
Nearly 55 years after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s death, the civil rights movement leader’s legacy continues to inspire progress toward social justice and equality. Hedy Lemar Walls hopes people will reflect on the importance of finding shared moral values with others this Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Lemar Walls — the executive vice president for social responsibility for the YMCA of the North in Minneapolis — will be the keynote speaker at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Breakfast for the Northeast Suburbs Monday, Jan. 16, at Parkview United Church of Christ in White Bear Lake. Parkview is hosting the event in partnership with White Bear Unitarian Universalist Church and Interfaith Action of Greater St. Paul. Doors for the event open at 6:30 a.m., and a free continental breakfast will be served at 6:45 a.m. Lemar Walls will deliver her address at 7:15 a.m. and Minneapolis-based vocal ensemble Cantus will perform afterward. There will later be a linked broadcast of the 33rd annual Dr. Martin Luther King
Jr. Holiday Breakfast that will be taking place that morning in Minneapolis. “One thing that he was very well known for was his strong values,” Lemar Walls said of King. “What we have to do as a people, I believe, is instead of focusing on the way people look or the way they dress or even the color of their skin, how do we move to a position of really wanting to engage and understand how others are feeling and seeing the world?” “It may be different from us, yet we can all learn from each other.” Lemar Walls is a Baton Rouge, Louisiana, native who lived in Minnesota for 48 years before moving to Florida in 2020. After she earned her bachelor’s degree from Southern University in Baton Rouge, Lemar Walls’ mother insisted she continued her education by getting a master’s degree. Lemar Walls applied to several universities around the country and received a full scholarship from the Carlson School of Business at the University of Minnesota. That’s where she received her master’s degree in business administration. She later went on to earn a doctoral degree in education in leadership from St. Mary’s University in Winona and a specialist degree in education administration from Minnesota State University in Mankato. Lemar Walls recalled how people in her life told her
she should be grateful for living in Minnesota because they believed there would be more racial equality and opportunities for Black people there than in the South. “That was not true,” Lemar Walls said, noting how most of the students of color at the University of Minnesota at the time were international pupils. Therefore, she had to learn to navigate a new cultural setting surrounded mostly by white people. That was in contrast to the segregation she’d grown up in living in Louisiana, where most people in her social circles were
CONTRIBUTED
Hedy Lemar Walls will be the keynote speaker at this year’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Breakfast for the Northeast Suburbs Monday, Jan. 16. She is the executive vice president for social responsibility for the YMCA of the North in Minneapolis.
SEE MLK JR DAY, PAGE 8
Mikelson taking stage for 16th annual Janis Joplin tribute concert BY RANDY PAULSON STAFF WRITER
TIM MCGUIRE | CONTRIBUTED
White Bear Lake resident Jill Mikelson and her fellow musicians perform at their annual “Happy Birthday, Janis” concert. The live show returns for a 16th year on Jan. 21 at First Avenue in Minneapolis after a two-year hiatus.
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WHITE BEAR LAKE — Jill Mikelson wasn’t ready to stop performing Janis Joplin’s music after she portrayed the legendary 1960s rock singer in the musical, “Love, Janis,” for 10 weeks in 2007. That musical, which took place at the Ordway Center in St. Paul, inspired Mikelson and other area musicians to create an annual concert honoring the late singer: “Happy Birthday, Janis, A Tribute to Her Life and Music.” The live music bash returns for its 16th year at 8 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 21, at First Avenue in Minneapolis after a two-year hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic. The show typically falls in late January to coincide with Joplin’s birthday: Jan. 19. “It's almost overwhelming because it's so exciting. I feel like the last few years have been really hard for