What to do MLK weekend in the San Francisco Bay Area

Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday and celebration comes up this weekend. Learn more about his life and how you can teach your kids his values, with resources from the Bay Area Discovery Museum's site. Monday is also a day of service, so do something with your kids to help them give back to the community.

SAN FRANCISCO
The Yerba Buena area has a lot planned! See the full MLK calendar here. In addition to museum events, there's a children's reading festival all day January 17th, a march/parade starting at 11 a.m., and a Mind, Body & Soul Festival. Here's info on the museums:


Museum of the Africa Diaspora (MOAD) has a family day on Saturday, January 15th from noon to 4. You and the kids can create your own screenprints of Dr. King and jazz musicians. They're also screening the film King: Montgomery to Memphis. Free admission.

Also get in free to MOAD on Monday, January 17th. It's also the National Day of Service. At MOAD, you can take part in a number of programs, including hearing author Rose Watson talk about her book Purposeful Parenting: Strategies for Raising Children who Achieve.

The Contemporary Jewish Museum will be open, and free to the public on Monday, January 17th from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. You can explore the exhibit "Black Sabbath: The Secret Musical History of Black Jewish Relations" and write your own "Poem from a Mountaintop" to take home, combining your own poetry with song lyrics.


This isn't a MLK event, but the Museum of Craft & Folk Art (MOCFA), also in the Yerba Buena area, has a family day on Saturday, January 15th from 11-1. As part of their Volver: Mexican Folk Art into Play exhibit, you can press animal designs into wet clay, for a personalized wall hanging. Admission/craft is $5.


EAST BAY
Playland not-at-the-Beach is celebrating MLK's birthday all weekend, January 15-17, with games, special events and even learning - all weekend. Playland not-at-the-Beach is in El Cerrito. Fee applies.


MARIN

The Bay Area Discovery Museum has a celebration on Monday, January 17th from 9 a.m to 4 p.m. You can create a self-portrait to add to their Freedom Bus, listen to a special story time, and learn from his quotes, posted around the museum. Their webpage also has ideas on how you can teach MLK's values to your kids.

EVERYWHERE
It's free National Park entrance weekend January 15-17th at 100 National Parks. Get the full list here. If you don't want to go too far, you can try Yosemite, Muir Woods, Pinnacles or San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park