The Dream Lives On is an event commemorating Martin Luther King Jr.’s ‘I Have a Dream’ speech on its 50th anniversary. The event will take place in Temple Bar Meeting House Square at 7pm on Wednesday 28th August.
Tickets for the event were free on entertainment.ie but all 600 were booked by early on Monday. However, the US embassy will be live streaming the event here. Twitter users can follow #TheDreamat50 and #MLKDublin50.
The centerpiece of The Dream Lives on will be an interactive re-enactment of the speech. 16 performers will recite a different section of the speech, but the audience will join in for the final statement: "Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, we are free at last".
Lord Mayor Oisín Quinn and John Hennessey - Niland Charge d’affaires at the US Embassy in Dublin - will address the event. Mayor Quinn says, “‘I Have a Dream’ is one of history’s standout speeches and has inspired millions of people all over the world. Dublin is honored to be part of the world-wide celebrations to mark the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s speech tonight. Of course we also marked the 100th anniversary of the start of the 1913 Lockout this week and both events remind us that although much has been achieved we still need to do everything we can to further diversity and integration in our society”.
The event will also feature music from the Aoife Doyle Band, Gospel Project and Hip Nos. It will finish with a screening of Soundtrack for a Revolution: a unique mix of historical documentary and contemporary musical performances from artists including John Legend, Joss Stone, Wyclef Jean, and The Roots.
The Dublin event is being organized and presented by the US Embassy in Dublin, Dublin City Council and the Temple Bar Cultural Trust.
It will be part of THE DREAM@50, a worldwide celebration of Dr. King’s speech. Seventeen locations, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Washington, D.C., Miami, London, Paris, Johannesburg, Northern Territory Australia, Shanghai, Singapore, Amman, Beirut, Prague, Dublin, and Mumbai will be hosting music and dance tributes that will be streamed in New York City’s Times Square and Los Angeles’s Nokia Plaza and on THE DREAM@50 YouTube Channel.
Nas and Damian Marley, Usher, Common, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis and Skillet have all dedicated songs that have been videotaped exclusively for inclusion in the worldwide DREAM@50 celebrations.
