What if MLK Day wasn’t just one morning — but a season?
In this midweek conversation, Avery Anderson speaks with Samantha Harris, executive director of the Tampa Bay Collard Green Festival, about the city’s inaugural 45 Days of Excellence — a new framework connecting the MLK Day Parade, community health initiatives, youth entrepreneurship, and the annual Collard Green Festival.
Harris reflects on why excellence is inseparable from resilience, how the festival grew from church fundraisers to citywide leadership, and what it means to build events with a community rather than for it.
This episode explores how celebration, health, and history can work together — and how small acts of care can carry the spirit of Dr. King forward every day.
