Oak Parkers looking to celebrate Kwanzaa or to learn more about the annual winter festivity honoring African-American culture can attend a gathering from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Dec. 30 at the Oak Park Public Library at 834 Lake St.
The event is free of charge and open to anyone who’d like to attend. Attendees will witness a dance performance, drumming and storytelling to honor the Black American harvest celebration, according to library officials.
What is Kwanzaa?
Kwanzaa is celebrated from Dec. 26 to Jan. 1. Donna Callender, artistic director and co-founder of Kuumba Kids, explained that during that period families or communities come together in a common place and celebrate the seven principles of Kwanzaa, a new one each day.
The seven principles are Umoja (unity), Kujichagulia (self-determination), Ujima (collective work and responsibility), Ujamaa (cooperative economics), Nia (purpose), Kuumba (creativity), and Imani (faith).
Callender said the idea is that families, including elders and young adults, or communities would teach these seven principles to their children or other community members during the seven days of Kwanzaa.
“You think about what each principle means, how [we can] incorporate this in our lives on a year-round basis, but [we] definitely bring it to the forefront during Kwanzaa,” she said.
In most African countries and tribes, Callender explained, when there is a harvest, there is a celebration. And Kwanzaa is a harvest celebration. During Kwanzaa, celebrants typically have a feast called Karamu Ya Imani (feast of faith), with various dishes. The Karamu feast was developed in Chicago in 1971.
Callender said sometimes Kwanzaa celebrants will exchange presents on the first day of the new year, but those presents must be handmade, not store bought.
“There’s more intention behind having to make something yourself,” she said. “There’s definitely a greater love behind what you’re doing.”
People can celebrate Kwanzaa and other winter holidays, like Christmas, if they choose, too, Callender said. They don’t have to be mutually exclusive.
How does Oak Park celebrate?
Callender is hosting the event at the OPPL on Dec. 30, helping the community understand more about Kwanzaa and why it’s important.
“My responsibility for the day is to host the program and to give the information that I was blessed to have received,” she said, adding that when she first moved to the United States in 1994, she had no idea what Kwanzaa was. But as a mother, she was able to expose her own children to this part of African American culture.
Each year, Kuumba Kids have performed at the event, even doing a prerecorded performance to showcase during the COVID-19 pandemic. This year, nine performers, from second to 11th grade, will do a traditional west African dance called “Lamban.”
“This particular dance, Lamban, is a dance that’s done to give reverence to the Griots, the oral historians, of our culture,” Callender said. Those oral historians, or “mental librarians” pass down the traditions and histories.
The Oak Park event will have a “melting pot of performing arts” Callender said. In addition to the Kuumba Kids performance, a libation presentation will be performed by Ade Onayemi and Hasani Canon will do a drumming solo.
It’s essential to represent different cultures, traditions and holidays in Oak Park, Callender said, because it’s how people learn and become allies for each other.
“If I’m exposed to the different cultures and traditions of someone who is not from the same background as I am, not only does it give me information, but it also opens my mind,” she said. “I’m able to now be a better friend, a better supporter of that particular person and their culture. Because at the end of the day, everybody’s culture is important.”
Exposure to different cultures and traditions also teaches individuals and their children to be more understanding and more accepting, Callender pointed out. That, in turn, will make the world a better place, she said. And the world doesn’t have to be the entire globe, she said, one’s world can be where they build their home or where they raise their family.
This Kwanzaa celebration is an opportunity not only to learn something new, she said, but to learn something different.
“I would just encourage everyone to come out and see, experience, feel, touch,” she said. “Let all your senses be open to what this Kwanzaa celebration is going to be about.”
