While there are many exciting things to do during the holiday season in NYC (think ice skating at Bryant Park, watching the Christmas tree standing bright at Rockefeller Center, heading down to the holiday market at Union Square, and sitting on Santa's lap at Macy’s), I recently came across a few activities I had not, until now, thought about doing. In my research about early American History to tie into a curriculum I am working on with a 7/8th grade teacher, I came across an event listing on the website to the African Burial Ground in Lower Manhattan that read: “Kwanzaa 2007.”
A quick search on the web led me to the Official Kwanzaa Website, where I read that Kwanzaa is a pan-African and African American Holiday, celebrated for seven days from December 26th to January 1st every year and created in 1966 by Dr. Maulana Karenga. The celebration of Kwanzaa involves a commemorative display on a piece of African cloth consisting of seven colored candles (black, red, and green), representing the seven principles of Kwanzaa (unity, self determination, cooperative economics, creativity, collective work and responsibility, purpose, and faith), two ears of corn for the children of the community, a unity cup for pouring libation to the ancestors, and African art objects and books. Karenga is careful to emphasize on his website the importance of the values behind the holiday and the care and artistry in which one should practice the rituals.
So if you are feeling enticed, you may want to consider paying a visit to some of the locations and events below. And who knows, you may even end up finding (or making!) a different kind of gift this year.
African Burial Grounds on December 22nd or 27th - Free workshops on Adinkra Appliques, Beading and Stories, African Puppets, an African drum ceremony and spoken word presentations on the history of the lives of the people buried in the Grounds.
American Museum of Natural History - an afternoon celebration on December 29th (12 – 5pm)
The Charles A. Dana Discover Center inside Central Park - an evening lecture by George Edward Tait, Poet Laureate of Harlem, also on the 29th (6:30pm), produced by the Central Park Conservancy and the Museum for African Art.
Comments