Ocean City festival brings big soul, R&B acts to resort as tribute to Martin Luther King

Editor's Note: This story has been updated to add movie screenings related to the Dreamfest event.

The town of Ocean City in celebrating the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. at its first ever Dreamfest, set to take place on Martin Luther King Weekend from Jan. 13-15.

The three-day music event will be held at the Ocean City Performing Arts Center, taking you through the decades of the '50s, '60s, and '70s with musical acts The B.B. King Experience featuring Claudette King, Thomas McClary's the Commodores, and The Spinners.

And new this week, the musical offerings will be supplemented with movie screenings at the Ocean City for the Arts, including a movie focusing on La Verne Eagleson, the Salisbury woman who once dated Martin Luther King Jr.

A music slate full of super soul and R&B

"We want to celebrate Rhythm and Blues while also honoring the civil rights hero Martin Luther King Jr., along with the history this holiday weekend represents," said Tom Perlozzo, Director of Tourism and Business Development. "Dreamfest will deliver the soulful sounds and rhythm of the voices of the past while also celebrating the dream of the late, great Dr. King."

The music festival will kick off on Friday with The B.B. King Experience featuring Claudette King. Saturday will surely get you grooving with the R&B funk of Thomas McClary's The Commodores.

More:Inaugural Dreamfest highlights a weekend of music in Ocean City

Dreamfest will then conclude on Sunday, Jan. 15, with The Spinners. Henry Farmbrough will lead his original Philadelphia group into classics such as "Could it Be I'm Falling in Love" and "Working My Way Back to You."

Tickets for Dreamfest can be purchased at the Roland E. Powell Convention Center or by visiting https://ocmdperformingartscenter.com.

Movie offering puts Salisbury woman in spotlight

The 92-year-old Salisbury woman who in the 1950s dated a young Martin Luther King, Jr. and studied voice with Coretta Scott King — before the couple ever met — will be a featured guest at this Saturday’s MLK festivities at the Ocean City Center for the Arts.

Their relationship is the subject of a new film, “The Boston Photograph,” to be shown Saturday at the Arts Center at 3:30 p.m.

“I look forward to sharing what I remember about them before they were a couple, entered the world stage, and became household names,” La Verne Eagleson said.

Directed by Clennon L. King, this film screening is part of a free open house reception on Jan. 14, 3-5 p.m. at the Ocean City Center for the Arts, 502 94th Street bayside. The open house, hosted by the Art League of Ocean City, honors the birthday of the civil rights leader and also Berlin native the Rev. Dr. Charles Tindley.

In addition to “The Boston Photograph,” three other films related to civil rights will be shown, including one that pays tribute to Tindley, the musical composer largely responsible for the anthem “We Shall Overcome,” which became the soundtrack of the movement Dr. King led.

La Verne Eagleson was a music student in Boston when she became friendly with and dated MLK. She also attended classes at the New England Conservatory with Coretta Scott, who would later marry Martin.

The film was inspired by a photograph of Martin and Coretta taken with La Verne and her first husband, the Rev. David Briddell, that had been packed away until La Verne’s granddaughter, Syeeda, heard about it and asked to take it to show-and-tell at school.

Following the screening of “The Boston Photograph,” Eagleson and her daughter, Jocelyn D. Briddell of Berlin, will talk and field questions from the audience about the relationship to Martin and Coretta.

“The Boston Photograph” film is eight minutes in length and produced and directed by Clennon L. King. A native of Albany, Ga., King hails from a prominent civil rights family, where his grandfather for whom he is named was a buggy driver for Booker T. Washington at Tuskegee, while his father was a lawyer for scores of civil rights demonstrators during the historic Albany Movement, including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

The film has been accepted into the 7th Annual 2023 Ocean City Film Festival, to be held in the resort from March 2-5.

Clennon King filmed the story at the Berlin home of Jocelyn Briddell in January 2021.

The Saturday event will include a live musical performance by Bryan Russo and the Tindley Family Gospel Choir, an “I Have a Dream” art show by students of Most Blessed Sacrament School in Berlin, and complimentary refreshments.

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The Ocean City Center for the Arts at 502 94th St. is open daily until 4 p.m., and admission is always free. More information is available at OCart.org or by calling 410-524-9433.

Olivia Minzola covers communities on the Lower Shore. Contact her with tips and story ideas at ominzola@delmarvanow.com.

This article originally appeared on Salisbury Daily Times: Ocean City’s first Dreamfest 'will surely get you grooving' in 2023