The LMU community will unite on Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026, at 5 p.m., in St. Robert’s Auditorium to honor the enduring legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. We will celebrate the students, staff, faculty, and Los Angeles community members who bring Dr. King’s vision of justice, equity, and love to life. The LMU community is encouraged to join this celebration for reflection, to rejoice, and recommit to building a world rooted in compassion and equality.
This year, LMU will proudly recognize the founding members of WalkGood LA – Etienne Maurice, Ivy Maurice, Marley Ralph, Jaie Peshawaria, and Kavi Peshawaria – with the 2026 King Legacy Award that celebrates individuals and organizations whose work advances civil rights and social justice on a national scale. As a family-centered wellness organization dedicated to healing and empowerment, WalkGood LA challenges institutions to think beyond traditional service models and toward practices that are restorative, humanizing, and transformative.
Born out of the social justice uprising in June of 2020 in the midst of a global pandemic and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, WalkGood LA is led by co-founder Maurice, an actor, director, and creative wellness philanthropist. WalkGood LA operates at the intersection of art, mental health, cultural affirmation, and grassroots organizing, particularly within Black and marginalized communities across Los Angeles. Maurice began cultivating a thriving wellness community rooted in collective care, offering free and low-cost programs such as yoga, sound baths, run clubs, comedy shows, and film screenings. Each experience is grounded in the belief that healing is not a luxury, but a human right. Since then, he has cultivated a thriving wellness community rooted in collective care, offering free and low-cost programs such as yoga, sound baths, run clubs, comedy shows, and film screenings.
WalkGood LA created the WalkGood Yard, a unique wellness space south of Wilshire that serves as a home for community connection and growth. Inspired by the Jamaican concept of “yard” as a place of belonging, it offers accessible yoga, meditation, sound baths, fitness classes, creative workshops, events, and yoga teacher training, all with the mission of making wellness opportunities available to every community in Los Angeles.
This annual campus MLK celebration hosted by Campus Ministry, Ethnic and Intercultural Services, and the Office of Black Student Services brings the campus community together for a day of remembrance and reflection of King’s life and legacy. Previously held in the morning, the 2026 MLK celebration has moved to 5-7 p.m. to allow more of the LMU community to participate in the celebration. With a focus on the theme of “Radical Revolution of Love,” drawing directly from King’s belief that love is a disciplined, courageous force capable of transforming individuals, institutions, and society. Through this lens love stands as an ethical commitment to justice, dignity, accountability, and collective care. In a world currently marked by fragmentation and polarization, the theme of “Radical Revolution of Love” invites the LMU community to consider how love can serve as a radical practice. “A love that challenges systems of harm, confronts inequality, and insists on the full humanity of all people,” said Kwyn Townsend Riley, director of the Office of Black Student Services. “This theme aligns deeply with Jesuit values, particularly the call to be persons for and with others, to engage faith through action, and to pursue justice as a lived commitment. A ‘Radical Revolution of Love” asks not only what we believe, but how we show up, for our students, our neighbors, and our broader communities.”
The celebration will be hosted by two first-year students, Gabby Brown ’29 and Zakye Hardy ’29, a computer science major, who both work for the Office of Black Student Services. The event will include remarks from university leadership, a musical performance by the Faithful Central Choir, a spoken word performance by Kweku, and reflections from Cecil White ’26, a sociology major, and alum and inaugural Igniting a Dream Award recipient, Exodus Broussard ’25, an animation major. During the event, members of the LMU community will also be honored with two awards, the 2026 MLK Community Advocate Award will celebrate a faculty, staff, or alumni from LMU who embodies King’s vision through their work and commitment to equity and justice within the university community, and the MLK Emerging Leader Award, which honors a student who demonstrates exceptional leadership and initiative in advancing Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream of equality, peace, and justice within their community.
