Photo courtesy of SLB

Monday, January 16 marks Martin Luther King Jr. Day this year. Here are some of the events going on around the Northside to celebrate the day.

Mattress Factory’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Birthday Bash

The museum will hold its annual event from 12-4 p.m. with free admission for visitors. Created to celebrate the life and visionary spirit, the event will have a variety of family activity that includes making a self-portrait and read with Sydelle Pearl, and creating a birthday crown and magnet. There will also be music and party snacks during the event.

The Mattress Factory Education Department has also partnered with the Union Project to participate in the “1000 Birds Project,” which will allow MLK Day Jr. Birthday Bash participants to make clay birds inscribed with messages on them. The birds will then be returned to the Union Project to be kiln fired.

Free Family Days in 2017 include the MLK Jr. Birthday Bash, are made possible by the Jack Buncher Foundation. Educational programming is made possible with generous support from Allegheny Regional Asset District; American Eagle Outfitters Foundation; Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation; Jack Buncher Foundation; Sheila Fortune Foundation; Grable Foundation; Institute for Museum and Library Services; Pennsylvania Council on the Arts; PNC Charitable Trusts; and the Sprout Fund.

Children’s Museum Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Celebration

A handful of featured programs and events will be held at different times throughout the day from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

King for a Day, a program hosted by The Saturday Light Brigade Radio Show, will run from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., where kids and adults can read aloud Dr. King’s speeches into a microphone.

On Freedom Corner, held from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., helps attendees create a zine that encompasses images from both Pittsburgh and national Civil Rights Movements, including images from the historic corner of Centre and Crawford Avenues, which is a symbol of the home of the Civil Rights Movement in Pittsburgh. The zine, which is a magazine that is self-published via photocopier, is meant to have visitors create and showcase their own ideas of what they would fight for.

Streaming Justice, and SLB production, will run from 1-6 p.m. but is only open to the public until 5 p.m. The webcast presentation, hosted by area teens throughout the region, will explore civil rights accomplishments, challenges, and dreams for the future. The webcast will air live at www.youthexpress.org or via the TuneIn or Simple Radio app, and will feature music, conversation, listener phone calls and more.

Carnegie Science Center

Duquesne Light Company has partnered with the Science Center again this year to offer free admission on Monday, January 16. The sponsorship allows visitors of all ages free general admission, parking, and an Omnimax film “Sea Monsters” from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

There will also be several live science demonstration shows throughout the day in the Body Stage and the Works Theater, according to a press release by the Science Center.