BATON ROUGE — Baton Rouge Metro Councilwoman Twahna Harris invited the public to a night of spoken word, poetry and music in celebration of Black History Month on Thursday.

Harris, who represents District 7, hosted the MLK Expressions Community Open Mic Night event at the Martin Luther King Jr. Center on Gus Young Avenue to encourage people to share their artistic expressions/

The councilwoman said it is important to create a space for people to tell their own stories.

"We know the importance of Black History Month and we wanted the community to know that the space here tonight is their space. It's home for them to come in and express what Black history means to them," Harris said.

She said there are more events planned at the community center in April.