Voices Carry Forward on MLK Day

Building Bridges with Music’s MLK Day 2026

By Anna Faller | Jan. 17, 2026

Longtime musician and founder of Traverse City nonprofit Building Bridges with Music (BBwM) Jeff Haas was only nine or 10 years old when he first heard Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. attribute the root of human action to love or fear.

Haas believes love is always the right choice, so BBwM has made a mission of cultivating connection, both through community programming, which aims to unite participants through shared creative experiences, as well as events like annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service on Jan. 19.

The gathering will take place from 10am-8pm at the Commongrounds Cooperative in Traverse City with a day of activities for all ages designed to highlight Dr. King’s teachings through spoken word.

“My belief is that music, arts, and culture help us understand our own capacity to love,” Haas says. “We’re just trying to do our part to enrich our community…”

About Building Bridges with Music

Building Bridges with Music, which turns 30 in 2026, was born through the Detroit music scene of the mid-1990s.

At the time, Haas, an active composer, had received a commission that he and his jazz quintet didn’t have adequate space to produce. Detroit Public Schools, however, did, which the group was able to utilize in exchange for answering students’ questions during rehearsal.

“All of their questions were, ‘How did you meet?’ and ‘Do you like the same kinds of music?’” he says. “That really planted the seeds in my mind for the potential this program had in terms of creating understanding and connection between people.”

By the end of 1996, the program had traveled north to Traverse City, eventually reaching schools as far as Antrim, Benzie, and even Marquette. Haas says BBwM has worked with every school in the Traverse City Area Public Schools district at least six times, and as of the 2025-26 school year, facilitates workshops for all 17 elementary schools.

Haas, however, is careful to note that Bridges isn’t a music program.

Instead, he says, the nonprofit uses music and creative arts to engage students in conversations surrounding the importance of humanistic values, like open-mindedness and respect. Its initiatives include workshops, which combine music and storytelling to spark discussion in larger groups of third-through-fifth graders; Sisters in Jazz, a mentorship program for women and non-binary youth helmed by jazz artists Marion Hayden and Laurie Sears; and more recently, poetry workshops, the latter of which form the framework for this year’s MLK celebration theme, Voices Carry Forward.

Community and Connection

Though BBwM has sponsored an annual event celebrating MLK for more than two decades, the 2026 celebration will be the first that also celebrates poetry.

The inspiration comes, in part, from Haas’s boyhood memories of experiencing Dr. King’s speeches and the power of a human rights defense that separated religion from politics.

“It was a very important part of our country’s history to focus on civil and human rights across the aisle without politics in mind,” he says. “This theme is our way of saying let’s focus on the teachings of Dr. King, but also hear from voices of future generations about what those teachings mean and what they inspire in young people.”

It’s also an opportunity to feature the work of BBwM’s poetry students. Developed to provide safe spaces for area students to express themselves, the nonprofit’s poetry workshops connect award-winning poets and resident artists Peace Bell and Joel Fluent Greene with local secondary students for lessons in creating and sharing poetry.

As BBwM Director of Operations and Programming Madelynn Brady highlights, those efforts also facilitated a recent collaborative poetry and art project through TCAPS, “Connected Voices, Collective Voices,” which included student compositions on MLK-centric topics, like compassion, empathy, and peace.

To accompany this year’s event, 86 of those poems, each paired with another student’s visual rendering, will adorn the walls of the Commongrounds building, alongside a massive quilt installation comprising hundreds of TCAPS art students’ creations.

“We were going for this emotion to be evoked with a lot of students coming together to create a large message of community, connection, and interwoven passion,” Brady says. “It’s going to be a sight to see.”

A Call to Commitment

As for the rest of the day? Festivities kick off at 10am at Commongrounds with a special MLK edition of Miriam Pico’s Mindful and Musical class, wherein pre-K kiddos and other youngsters can explore music and movement through Dr. King’s messaging. The following hour marks the start of an all-day collaborative art project, headlined by hands-on activities like real-time writing and a giant magnet board, with local art teacher Laura Adams at the helm.

From noon to 2pm, onsite dining venue Riverside is serving a free-to-the-public community lunch, complete with student volunteers. Meanwhile, a trio of Haas’s longtime collaborators—Joe Wilson (trombone), Kevin LaRose (tuba and bass), and Jimmy Oleson (keyboards)—will be playing traditional spirituals and “funky rock-jazz.”

“[The idea] is that the air is filled with love and spirituality inspired by Dr. King,” Haas explains.

In the afternoon, poetry takes center stage with a two-hour block dedicated to performances from Greene, Bell, and a cohort of Northport students who’ve been working since September on poems surrounding the progression of modern society. The day concludes with a rhythmic bang in a free (but ticketed) event featuring Detroit Poet Laureate Jessica Care Moore and guitarist Kenny Watson at The Alluvion.

“It’s a way to bring in some of the music surrounding the time of the Civil Rights Movement and everything that encompasses who MLK was as a figure,” Moore says. “[Creating] art is a way of finding your tribe and finding your peace. It’s what connects us and what has to keep us moving forward.”

Knowing how to move forward, though, can feel uncertain without a clear call to action to follow.

“In past years [of MLK events], people have walked up to me and said, ‘That was really engaging and heartwarming, but what now?’” Haas says.

This year, though, the message is clear: “we’re asking for commitment” to enrich the lives of others through daily acts of kindness (which could be as small as a genuine smile, helping with groceries, holding the door, etc.). “It’s a daily commitment to small acts of kindness that add up to real change in our community,” Haas adds.

“Humanity is something we have in common, and it’s something that Dr. King stood for,” Brady concludes. “Talking about his message of love over fear gives us hope for a future where we’re all unified.”

Find the Commongrounds Cooperative at 414 E. Eighth St. in Traverse City. For more information, visit buildingbridgeswithmusic.org.

More for MLK Day

MLK Day festivities are also on the 2026 docket for Northern Michigan E3, a local nonprofit and anti-racism taskforce whose mission surrounds promoting equity and diversity in northern Michigan.

Join them in practice of the three E’s—education, engagement, and elevation—as they relate to the life and teachings of MLK for their annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Freedom Walk and Celebration on Jan. 17. The march kicks off at 1:30pm at Rotary Square (that’s the corner of Union and State streets), before continuing on to The Alluvion. The day’s itinerary also includes a fireside conversation with retired government attorney (and Northern Express opinion contributor) Isiah Smith, Jr., and a subsequent social hour at Bushell’s Kitchen and Cocktails.

All event proceeds go towards the support of other E3 programs, including the I Have a Dream Scholarship Fund. For more information or to join the event, visit northernmichigane3.com.