Love Lives Here in the Flathead hosts its 15th annual Martin Luther King Jr. celebration at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 17, at the Whitefish Performing Arts Center.

The celebration combines live musical performances, oral presentations and reminders of the long and hard-won struggle the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. championed in his lifetime.

Titled “We Were All Strangers Once,” the program chronicles the history of the black experience in Montana.

“At one time, Montana had three black newspapers, an all-black Army regiment in Missoula, a black jazz club in Great Falls, and Shotgun Mary, a gun-toting, wagon-riding postal carrier,” said Allen Secher, who is producing the show with Bruce Guthrie. “This year we will present a cast of talented Montana performers including composer and arranger Lance Bendiksen, violinist Wai Mizutani, multi-talented musician and composer Erica von Kleist, and Montana’s well-known vocalists Halliday Quist, Mike Eldred and Andre Floyd. The history of the black experience in Montana will be narrated by Broadway and Hollywood actor David Ackroyd.”

One of the evening’s highlights will be a performance of “Ballad for Americans,” a patriotic cantata written for Paul Robeson in 1939. It is an expression of pride in America’s journey toward freedom and equality. NPR radio personality Allen Secher will lead the performance, joined by a spoken word chorus of local people representing the diversity of America in the Flathead Valley. Secher, a Freedom Rider during the Civil Rights era, marched with the Rev. King in 1964.

Bendiksen, a music producer and composer, has had far-reaching success in the music industry. He has written more than 2,000 songs and published 200, and has scored films and television shows that have aired in over 1,200 markets. Bendiksen has written an original composition, “In A Dream,” which will be performed by Quist and Eldred.

Mitzutani escaped from China at age 14 and became the youngest first violinist in the Hong Kong Philharmonic orchestra at age 15. Internationally respected, he has performed with superstars from pop and classic rock to opera and classical, including Michael Jackson, Elton John and YoYo Ma. He teaches at Flathead Valley Community College.

Von Kleist, a multi-instrumentalist, teacher and entrepreneur, studied at the renowned Juilliard School and in 2004 earned the first bachelor’s degree in jazz in the school’s history. After graduation, in the years following she has toured and acquired several Grammy-nominated recordings with various artists. One of her most recent endeavors is “Boobs ... and Other Stories,” a hilarious one-woman show with von Kleist at the helm on piano and voice. This show features original songs that focus on the struggles that women often face in society.

Quist is a singer-songwriter, model and multi-instrument musician. She plays bass, banjo, guitar and ukulele, to name a few instruments.

Eldred has performed in concert halls, on Broadway, and on recordings, radio and television. He appeared on Broadway in “Les Miserables” as Jean Valjean and in the original cast of the Tony-nominated “The Civil War.” Eldred is increasingly interested in using his performances to raise awareness and funds for causes close to him.

Floyd, a musician, educator and performer with the band Mood Iguana, is from Big Arm. He is a graduate of the University of Montana and has been performing in the Flathead Valley for many years.

“We Were All Strangers Once” is sponsored by Love Lives Here, an affiliate of the Montana Human Rights Network.

Tickets are not required for the performance, but a donation of $10 is suggested to help Love Lives Here’s efforts toward dismantling discrimination in the Flathead Valley by bringing the community together.

More information can be found at http://loveliveshereflathead.org