#1187: “MLK: Now is the Time” Brilliantly Translates Dr. King’s Speech into Embodied Interactions & Spatial Metaphors

MLK: Now is the Time was originally released on the Meta Quest platform on January 12, 2023, and was selected to show at SXSW as a part of the 2023 XR Experience Spotlight. It’s master class of immersive storytelling and a brilliant use of the affordances of VR to create an interactive, embodied, and immersive experience of some of the lesser known and discussed parts of Dr. Martin Luther King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech on August 28, 1963. This is the second part of a series on MLK with the first experience being The March, which was converted into a 360-degree experience that is also available on the Quest platform.

I had a chance to catch up with MLK: Now is the Time director Limbert Fabian, as well as the writer Andrina Wekontash Smith at SXSW to break down their experiential design process of creating this piece, which was personally my favorite story coming out all 30+ experiences this year. I wasn’t the only one who thought that as well as it won the SXSW XR Experience Spotlight Audience Award as well. So I highly, highly recommend checking out MLK: Now is the Time on the Quest, and then listen to us break it all down.