Wenatchee Valley Museum Playing Host to MLK Multicultural Fest

The Wenatchee Valley Museum and Cultural Center is reprising its role as host of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Multicultural Fest.

A paean to the everlasting diversity of our region, the Multicultural Fest has been going strong for years.

"We've had multiple organizations come by and participate," says museum marketing manager Terra Sokol. "This year, we're super excited to have the Indigenous Roots and Reparation Foundation partnering with us as they host their own outdoor salmon bake, which is first come, first served." This "beautiful tradition," as Sokol calls it, is donation-driven and available to all guests.

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Other participants include Eastmont and Wenatchee High School Mariachi, An Daire Academy of Irish Dance, Wenatchee HS Folklorico Club and Wenatchee/P’Squosa elder Randy Lewis, a scholar of the Colville Tribes' richly complicated history.

Meanwhile the City of Wenatchee will unveil the winners of its annual Uplift Awards. Click here for a full list of nominees. Click here to read our chat with Uplift hopeful Steven Hightower, the self-effacing Behavioral Health and Crisis Program Director at Catholic Charities.

Coming down the pike is Dr. Itohan Idumwonyi. Although a religious scholar (and Gonzaga professor), we're told her museum lecture pertains to Ubuntu, a largely secular, apolitical humanist philosophy native to Southern Africa. For many in the apartheid resistance movement, including Nelson Mandela himself, Ubuntu served as a kind of spiritual compass.

"Dr. Idumonyi will essentially try to recontextualize Ubuntu," Sokol says. "People will be able to see different perspectives and ways to build community." Look for Idumwonyi's lecture on Feb. 7, a Friday, at 6 p.m.

The festival itself is slated for Jan. 18, a Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Click here for more information.