This month, Rowland Hall celebrated our fifth annual MLK Week, a time our community comes together in support of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision of a world rooted in love, understanding, and solidarity. The 2026 event theme was Better Together.

This year’s MLK Week kicked off on January 14, with a community-wide event featuring writer and advocate Deepa Iyer, who shared her framework for social change and work around community building. Attendees were then treated to a performance by Bomba Marilé, an Afro Puerto Rican Bomba music and dance group.

Deepa and Bomba Marilé returned to campus the following day to support a daylong program for students. Beginning schoolers heard Deepa read from her children’s book, We Are the Builders!, and watched a short performance by Bomba Marilé. Lower schoolers also enjoyed a performance by the group before creating their own changemaker artifacts, which they shared in an on-campus parade. On the Lincoln Street Campus, middle and upper schoolers participated in storytelling, poetry, and music activities. These experiences, led by Deepa and fellow guest presenters Dee-Dee Darby Dufin and Ashley Finley, helped the students better understand the roles storytelling, art, and active engagement play in building better, more inclusive futures.

Finally, members of the Rowland Hall community gathered on January 19, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, in service and a call to action. Participants stocked, cleaned, and prepared food for the Crossroads Urban Center Food Pantry, as well as cleaned up the riverfront at the Tracy Aviary Nature Center at Pia Okwai. Others gathered for the Dr. King Rally and March at the University of Utah. Shout-out to Rowland Hall senior Imran Ibrahima, who was selected to read an essay he wrote about the power of affinity groups and being seen for who you are at the pre-march rally. Well done, Imran!