Anti-Bias Task Force announces collaborations with Riverhead library, including MLK event, ‘kindness corners’

Riverhead Town’s Anti-Bias Task Force has revealed three new collaborations for January and February with the Riverhead Free Library.

The first collaboration is a presentation of the speeches of Martin Luther King Jr. on Jan. 15 from 10 a.m. to noon called “MLK Through Many Voices.” The speeches will be read by “men inspired to follow in his footsteps” in the local community, including Suffolk County Sheriff Errol Toulon, Suffolk County Community College Professor James “Dr. Love” Banks, First Baptist Church Reverend Charles Coverdale, East End NAACP President Larry Street and First Baptist Church Deacon Robert “Bubbie” Brown.

According to Cindy Clifford, the chair of the Anti-Bias Task Force, the event is currently planned for in-person attendance at the library, but may switch virtual out of caution. Clifford urges those interested in the event to register for the event through the library.

“I get really choked up when I start even thinking about the potential of this event; of just being in a room full of people and listening to [his speeches] like 50 years later, and knowing that they still resonate and that they still have as much power,” Clifford said. “That we still need as badly to listen to these words and to take these suggestions and to follow this lead.”

The second collaboration is a workshop by Banks on Feb. 19 from 3 to 4:30 p.m. titled “How to be an Ally,” which will “explore when and how to step up and speak out in support of anyone in need.”

The task force also revealed a new project called “Kindness Corners,” which are small gardens filled with rocks “decorated with heartfelt messages and cheerful designs” at the library. The gardens will be placed at schools and other locations around Riverhead. Rocks will be able to be painted at the library until Feb. 28.

Correction Jan. 4, 2021 10:40 a.m.: An earlier headline of this article misstated the “kindness corners” as “kindness gardens.” The headline has been amended to correct this mistake.