As speakers at the Brooklyn Academy of Music celebrated Dr. Martin Luther King, another event held in Washington, D.C. to inaugurate President Donald Trump loomed over the ceremonies.

As did a notable absence: Mayor Eric Adams.

“Some that should be here celebrating. Dr. King with us in this room have chosen to go to Washington to celebrate felon 47. Righteous indignation. That’s not for New York,” City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams said Monday.

The mayor had been set to attend the BAM event, along with several other MLK Day celebrations in the city, before instead heading to Washington, D.C. for the inauguration.

Not every speaker was so direct in addressing Trump’s second term.

“In this time known as 2025 — and we will get through this time, my friends, I assure you,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said in what seemed to be her only reference to the swearing-in.

“Today, some of us might be feeling somber because of things happening in other parts of this country. Right?” Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso said. “But Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would have never, never fretted. He would never stop. He would have — it wouldn’t have bothered him. There was too much love in his heart and too much commitment to progress.”

The annual event featured Carlotta Walls LaNier as the keynote speaker — a member of the Little Rock Nine, the group of Black children who attended Little Rock Central High School despite the efforts of Arkansas’ governor and national guard to keep the school segregated.

The inauguration was on her mind, too.

“We have our first convicted felon becoming the first president to enter the Oval Office. Again. I can see Dr. King shaking his head. The way of justice never did or does run smoothly. So today, I have come to tell my own story, because it is part of the journey that we have been on for more than the years where Dr. King entered the fray,” she said.

The nine students only eventually were able to attend classes after President Dwight Eisenhower called in the military to disperse angry and violent mobs that would gather outside — mobs she said were similar to the ones at the Capitol and Jan. 6.

Mobs that had gathered more than 65 years ago simply because she and eight others decided to attend her neighborhood school.

“Today, only seven of us remain. Remember this: What you decide to do, what actions you decide to involve yourself in, could have outcomes you cannot now know. Choose wisely,” she said.