A celebration of community in Manchester for Martin Luther King Jr. Day

At Manchester Memorial High School on Monday, the theme of the annual celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. this year was “Uplifting Resistance through Community.”

Sebastian Fuentes, a member of the Martin Luther King Jr. Coalition, which organized the event, said it was a day of community and unity.

“As you know anxiety is all over the place,” Fuentes said. “So we thought: what better way to honor Dr. King’s legacy with getting all those folks doing the work on the streets, doing the work in the community, in one place. Let’s have some music, let’s have some food, let’s have some conversations.”

Fuentes said roughly 24 organizations came together for the event, including the Business Alliance for People of Color, and the New Hampshire Youth Movement. The day included conversations about building resilience in today’s political climate.

Melanie Levesque, New Hampshire’s first Black state senator, was given the 2026 Martin Luther King Jr. Award.

Levesque accepted her award on behalf of her parents, whose experience moving to Massachusetts guided her to help pass legislation on civil unions and marriage equality. She remarked on the value of Martin Luther King Jr.’s message in the current moment.

“I feel that we need his influence more than ever right now because we are in tough times,” Levesque said. “He was in tough times, but his words, especially words of community and resilience, are words that we can live by.”

Levesque also announced her intention to run for Executive Council in 2026. She previously ran as a Democrat in 2024 in District 5, where she was defeated by incumbent Republican Dave Wheeler.

State House Representative Alice Wade was also honored with the 2026 Vanessa Washington-Johnson Bloeman Award as an emerging leader in social justice.