In celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the spunky little Bloomfield-Garfield Community Center pulled out all the stops.

There was rousing gospel, foot-stomping blues, exuberant hip-hop and poems of peace.

Martha Rial, Post-Gazette Sophomore voice major Chrystal E. Williams sings "Give Me Jesus" during Carnegie Mellon University's annual Celebrate the Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. event yesterday at CMU's University Center. Click photo for larger image.

For three hours, it was a nonstop cultural explosion. At times, the little brick church, which now houses the center, shook.

Across town, at the University of Pittsburgh, students were honoring the civil rights leader, but differently.

More than 100 volunteers with Jumpstart, a national tutoring and mentoring program, were stuffing bags with grass seed, coloring paper and high hopes for increased literacy. The bags will be distributed in the eight Headstart and elementary school rooms used by Jumpstart.

"King encourages strength in the community, and by bringing together people this embodies his ideals," said Cody Roberts, 20, an accounting major who tutors in Homewood.

A room away, 13 members of Pitt's Black Action Society were volunteering with children of Somalia refugees, helping to boost their reading skills and build bridges for them with the African-American community.

It was one event in the action society's full day, which also included a candlelight vigil, a luncheon and a chance to speak out on injustice.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day turned 20 this year. Over the past two decades, two trains of thought have emerged on how best to honor his legacy.

One calls for a day of cultural celebrations. The other favors a day of goodwill, where volunteers fan out in service projects to pour life into the "beloved community" that Dr. King prayed for.

Martha Rial, Post-Gazette University of Pittsburgh senior Brandon L. Edmonds, right, walks at the front of a candelight procession by students, faculty and community members at Carnegie Mellon University to commemorate the life of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Edmonds is a member of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity. Other CMU events honoring the late civil rights leader included a community conversations and a keynote address by constitutional law professor Derrick Bell. Click photo for larger image.

Both are needed, said the South African poet Dennis Brutus, who attended the Garfield celebration and once marched with Coretta Scott King against apartheid. He said honoring the civil rights leader needs more focus on his political contributions.

With the sanitation workers, Dr. King challenged labor injustice; with Rosa Parks, he challenged segregation; and with his letter from the Birmingham jail, he challenged clergy to be more active, Mr. Brutus said.

"He dealt with social justices and politics at the same time," he said. "He never buried either."

Nearly 100 people took part in the Garfield celebration, an event put together by Adam Flanagan, 17, a Boy Scout hoping to earn Eagle status.

Mayor Bob O'Connor stopped in, as did Councilwoman Twanda Carlisle.

Between the mimes, speeches, piano playing and dancing, Darleen Summers, a longtime Garfield community worker, offered words of praise to each act.

"Knowing that our children are coming together and expressing how they feel, this is what Dr. King would have wanted," she said. "This is coming from the heart."