Melvin Deal, founder and artistic director of D.C.’s highly acclaimed African Heritage Dancers and Drummers performing arts group who’s gay, and longtime D.C.
gay and Ward 8 community activist Phil Pannell, who serves as executive director of the Anacostia Coordinating Council, are among nine people selected as grand marshals for the 40th Annual D.C.
Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Parade. The website for the King Day Parade says it will take place this year on Jan. 18, as a virtual event due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “Stay tuned!” a website message says for information on how to access the virtual parade through the website mlkholidaydc.org. “The parade began in 1979, six years before King’s birthday became a federal holiday,” says the