Pontiac Daily Leader
BLOOMINGTON –– The 31st annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. National Holiday Gospel Festival will take place, virtually, on Monday, Jan. 18.
The festival will be streamed live via Illinois Wesleyan University’s YouTube channel (www.iwu.edu/gospelfest) from 7:30-9:30 p.m. Due to the ongoing pandemic, videos of performances and speakers were submitted and edited together into the two-hour presentation, which will also be made available to watch on-demand.
Presented by Illinois Wesleyan University and the United Community Gospel Singers of Bloomington-Normal, the festival honors the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who spoke at Illinois Wesleyan in 1961 and returned to the University to speak in 1966 after receiving the Nobel Peace Prize. The festival was founded in 1991 by the late Corine Sims and her husband, the Rev. James Sims, with Illinois Wesleyan and the United Community Gospel Singers as co-founders.