Spiritual music, a worship service, various speakers and a birthday cake will help the Ames and ISU community honor America’s premiere civil right’s leader. The annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. celebration begins Friday at 11:50 a.m. on Central Campus with a carillon performance by ISU music professor Tin-Shi Tam.”It is a time when you will hear music that focuses on Dr. Martin Luther King and music of the African-American community,” said Dr. Lenola Allen-Sommerville, chair of the Martin Luther King Jr. Birthday Celebration Planning Committee.All the events are annual traditions that have existed since the holiday’s conception in 1986, Pat Miller, program coordinator for the Committee on Lectures, said. One of such traditions, the King University Birthday Party and Music Celebration, will follow the carillon performance at noon in the Sun Room of the Memorial Union. It will include presentations by ISU students, faculty and administrators, including Interim President Richard Seagrave. “[Seagrave’s speech] is important because it sends a message to the community that the university is indeed supportive and appreciative of the holiday,” said Allen-Sommerville, professor of curriculum and instruction. Student participation is also vital since King had a love for young people, she added. Music provided by two campus choirs, the Oratorio Choir and the New Beginnings Gospel Choir, will fill the Union. The audience will have the opportunity to join in singing spiritual songs and the musical celebration will culminate, as tradition has it, with the song “We Shall Overcome.” Those attending will then be able to partake in the birthday cake donated by the Union.Community members will have the opportunity to gather at 7 p.m. Sunday for the inter-faith worship service held at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Ames, 1015 N. Hyland St. This religious aspect is an important part of King’s legacy, Allen-Sommerville said. Though all of celebration’s events are open to the public, the Ames Public Library, 515 Douglas Ave., will be sponsoring Community Birthday Celebration at 7 p.m. Monday geared toward families. In conclusion of the celebration each year, a keynote speaker addresses topics related to King’s vision. Allen-Sommerville said the intent of the committee is to bring in speakers somehow associated with King or those who share his philosophy. “We select those who are implementing that dream, and we’ve been pretty good at doing that,” she said, “We’ve had both men and women, pastors and laypeople.” This year, Emanuel Cleaver II, the first African-American elected as mayor of Kansas City, Mo. will give a talk titled “Faith and Politics.”Miller said Cleaver will be able to address the subject on a personal level, as he is pastor of St. James United Methodist Church in Kansas City. The lecture will be held at 8 p.m. Jan. 23 in the Sun Room of the Memorial Union. Cleaver’s lecture and all other King events are free to the public, Miller said.Allen-Sommerville said it is difficult to predict how many people will attend the events to honor King but said a significant portion of the ISU community is reached, if no other way, by the carillon performance. In celebrating King’s legacy, Allen-Sommerville said many people wonder if the dream he referred to in his famous speech is still alive after all these years. “This dream lives on in our hearts when we continue the struggle for justice and equality in a non-violent way,” she said. “The dream also lives on when people of different ethnicities and races work together as brothers and sisters regardless of their skin color.”