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JERREY ROBERTS

Kalimah Dunwell, 14, of Springfield, who works with the No One Leaves Coalition, speaks beside Trinity College professor Vijay Prashad, left, and University of Massachusetts professor John Bracey during a Martin Luther King Jr. Day program Monday at Edwards Church in Northampton.

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JERREY ROBERTS

Who Da Funk It, a teenage band from Amherst, performs during a Martin Luther King Jr. Day program Monday at Edwards Church in Northampton.

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JERREY ROBERTS

Jeff Napolitano, director of the American Friends Service Committee of Western Massachusetts, speaks during “Youth Organizing: From Occupy Wall Street to the Fight Against Foreclosures” during a Martin Luther King Jr. Day program Monday at Edwards Church in Northampton.

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JERREY ROBERTS

John Bracey, a professor of Afro-American studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, said during a Martin Luther King Jr. Day program Monday at Edwards Church in Northampton that activists of earlier generations must let the young find their own voice through the Occupy Wall Street movement. “This is their movement for their time, and our job as older people is to support them.”

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JERREY ROBERTS photos

Trinity College professor Vijay Prashad of Northampton Martin Luther King Jr. during a program Monday at Edwards Church in Northampton to describe social justice organizing today: “Only when it is dark enough can you see the stars.”

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Kalimah Dunwell, 14, of Springfield, said during a Martin Luther King Jr. Day program Monday at Edwards Church in Northampton that young people have to get involved in the foreclosure crisis. “We can’t have passive energy about this,” she said. “We need to educate our youth.”

NORTHAMPTON - City resident Tanner Slick, 25, came to Edwards Church on Monday to "feel connected" to his community.

George Esworthy, 65, of Shelburne Falls, said he was there to help "keep the message of Martin Luther King alive and accessible to another generation."

Alyssa Sutton, 20, of Greenfield, was eager to spend the MLK holiday listening to "different conversations and opinions."

They were among more than 100 participants in the 28th annual King Day celebration sponsored by the American Friends Service Committee of Western Massachusetts.

For the second year in a row, the downtown church was host to the day-long event, which this year featured workshops, speeches and musical performances focused on a theme "Youth Organizing: From Occupy Wall Street to the Fight Against Foreclosures."

Slick, a local artist who had started the day with a Sojourner Truth Walking Tour of Florence, said he likes to mark the MLK holiday by "doing something that deals with the issues King felt were important."

At Monday's program, he participated in a workshop led by the Bill of Rights Defense Committee about the effects of the USA Patriot Act and federal immigration policy on civil liberties.

In other workshop sessions and over lunch in the church basement provided by 17 local restaurants, the Occupy Wall Street movement was a frequent touchstone of conversation.

During a panel discussion in the afternoon, John Bracey, a professor of Afro-American Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, advised those of his generation not to expect the Occupy movement to look like the social movements of their era.

"I'm a historian, but I don't believe in nostalgia," said Bracey, a civil rights activist who has taught at UMass since 1972.

"What I like about Occupy Wall Street is that it says, 'We don't have the answer, but we know the question,'" he said. "This is their movement for their time, and our job as older people is to support them."

Panelist Vijay Prashad, a Northampton resident who is a professor of international studies at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., used a quote from King to describe the state of social justice organizing in America: "Only when it is dark enough can you see the stars."

Prashad also drew connections between Occupy Wall Street and global movements for economic and social justice, calling the Occupy protests "stars that have in this last year finally come to the surface."

Kalimah Dunwell, a 14-year-old leader of the Springfield-based No One Leaves Coalition, described her group's efforts to fight foreclosures and evictions in that city - including one that was postponed on Monday's holiday honoring King.

"The fact that Fannie Mae was planning on foreclosing on a home on today of all days - it's selfish," Dunwell said. "We can't have passive energy about this. We need to educate our youth."

During the question-and-answer session that followed the panel, one man wanted to know how activists of different faiths can work together on solving the difficult problems that King preached about.

Bracey said the best approach is "to see your humanity in every other person on the planet. Every human being - that's all we got."