LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — Martin Luther King Jr. Day is just six days away. In preparation for that day, Yates Elementary School students here in Lexington have been busy this week on a project that, if you shop at the Bryan Station Kroger, you will have the chance to enjoy the artwork.
In Michelle Thomas' classes, her 357 students are using art to grapple with some of the darkest side of the nation's history.
"I think that kids' art is the best thing ever. It's the best art, it's pure and it's true and honest," Thomas explained to LEX 18.
Using a paper bag and markers, Thomas is allowing her students to create art inspired by the life and death of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Taking pieces of his life, students are creating works to represent the struggles he faced in one of the darkest times in U.S. History.
"He always said until he was little he had friends and now they couldn't play with each other because he was black and the other people were white," one student told LEX 18's Claire Kopsky.
"I asked them to create a work of art that shows what they've learned about Martin Luther King, and that could be as something as basic, especially for the younger kids as a portrait of Martin Luther King, and how we use shapes to make a picture of a person,' Thomas explained. "But then with the older kids, it's like, more like what was his dream? And what is your dream? And how can you keep the dream alive?
Using brown paper bags from Kroger, the students illustrated the life of an American hero.
Those bags will be used to bag groceries at the Bryan Station Kroger over the weekend. You must request a paperbag during checkout.
