This Saturday, Long Beach will host its 38th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Parade and Celebration to honor the life of the prolific Civil Rights activist.

This year’s parade — with the theme “Rise Up, Stand Up for His Dream” — will start at 10 a.m. at the intersection of MLK Avenue and Anaheim Street, then march north along MLK Avenue before ending at MLK Park on Lemon Avenue.

After the parade ends at noon, there will be a full schedule of live entertainment in the park, which will also host a kids’ zone along with food and merchandise vendors.

Here’s the schedule:

  • 12:15 p.m. – Flag Ceremony by Long Beach Polytechnic High School JROTC
  • 12:20 p.m. – Antioch Church will perform “Lift Every Voice and Sing”
  • 12:30 to 1 p.m. – Performance by Gravity Dance Company
  • 1 to 1:30 p.m. – Program and announcements
  • 1:45 to 2:30 p.m. – Performance by DeMay
  • 2:30 to 2:45 p.m. – Poem readings by the winners of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Student Poetry Contest
  • 3 to 3:30 p.m. – Performance by Kristien Owens
  • 4 to 5 p.m. – Performance by Anita Wilson

This year marks 58 years since King was assassinated while standing on a motel balcony in Memphis, Tennessee. King, who won the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize, was 39 years old.

Grand Marshals for this year’s parade include nonprofit leader Tito Rodriguez — also known as “Hood Santa” — Bruce Brown, Kimberly Benoit, Errol Parker, Robbie Butler, community organization The SIX LB, Darick Simpson, Mariko Kahn, Vice Mayor Roberto Uranga and former councilmember Tonia Reyes Uranga. You can find more information on the grand marshals here.

It’s a larger group of grand marshals than last year’s parade, which drew controversy over its selection process.

Ahead of that event, Long Beach resident Sheba Gillis and several hundred other community members voiced concern, which led to one honoree ultimately declining an award. Gillis called last year’s parade planning process “disjointed” and said previously that the result didn’t “match the wants or needs of the community.”

In a response posted to social media, the area’s council member, Suely Saro, vowed to improve the planning process this year.

Part of this year’s grand marshal list was broken up into categories with one selection each for youth, philanthropy, civic engagement and service, social justice advocacy, community achievement and arts, sports and culture. Four additional grand marshals were chosen outside of those categories.