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This year’s Kwanzaa celebration, being held 7-9 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 7 in the Marlo Room of Farinon College Center, will be highlighted by student performances of poetry, dance, and song. All are welcome to attend.
The Kwanzaa celebration is sponsored by the Office of Intercultural Development, Association of Black Collegians, Brothers of Lafayette, and NIA (Multicultural Women’s Support Group).
“Kwanzaa is an African American holiday that honors African principles within the African American experience,” explains Nana Ama Bentsi-Enchill, coordinator of intercultural development. “It is an opportunity for the entire Lafayette community to come together to learn and celebrate, revitalize and refocus, in time for the upcoming New Year. This celebration is a family-centered event that the whole Lafayette community can participate in and relate to.”
The evening’s events will begin with a reception and then focus on student presentations. Students will use creative mediums to convey each of the holiday’s seven principles of unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity, and faith.
This year, the celebration will highlight the principle of kuumba (pronounced koo-OOM-bah), which means “creativity makes use of our creative energies to build and maintain a strong and vibrant community.” Poetry, tap dance, song, and spoken word are among the creative methods students will use in their presentations.
Kwanzaa was created in 1966 by Maulana Karenga, professor of black studies at California State University-Long Beach. Observed from Dec. 26-Jan. 1, the holiday celebrates community, family, and culture. It is not a religious holiday or an alternative for religion, but rather a platform to provide common ground for African culture. The seven days of celebration serve to reinforce the holiday’s seven principles. A candle holder contains one black candle for the people, which represents unity; three red candles for their struggle, which represent self-determination, cooperative economics, and creativity; and three green candles for the future and hope that comes from their struggle, which represent collective work and responsibility, purpose, and faith.