22 Search results for "kwanzaa"

by Loni Amor This essay contains discussions of suicidal ideation. Inspired by First Fruit festivals of Southern Africa, African-American civil rights activist and academic, the extremely problematic  Dr. Maulana Ron Karenga established Kwanzaa in 1966. Deriving from the Swahili phrase “matunda ya kwanza”, which translates loosely to “first fruits of the harvest”, Kwanzaa offers Black […]

    BYP100 Chicago Chapter invites you to celebrate with us!

While the holidays are a time for family and friends to get together, the season can also be difficult and exclusionary for members of the black LGBT community. Due to the alienation, more LGBT African Americans are turning to the holiday of Kwanzaa. 

  Yesterday marked the first day of Kwanzaa, an annual 7-day celebration honoring African and American American heritage and culture, and the Republican National Committee wants you to know that they support the holiday. In the committee’s first-ever commemoration of the holiday, RNC chairman Reince Priebus wrote that he wants “to extend my best wishes to all who are […]

Republican WI state senator Glenn Grothman is under fire after attacking the Kwanzaa holiday, asserting that “no black people care” about it. Of course, it’s actually observed by 2 million Americans. Should he apologize? Do you celebrate Kwanzaa?

This post is obviously a week late. I wasn’t able to post it last week but I still wanted to share. The perception that Kwanzaa is inaccessible, and only celebrated by daishiki clad radicals and those of us trying too hard to reclaim our African roots is outdated. I’ve seen more and more that Kwanzaa […]

Greetings Black people, if you have been celebrating Kwanzaa for the first time I hope that it has been a good experience. If not and you are still considering, there are three days left. I left you earlier in the week with some ways to observe the Nguzu Saba, the seven principles of Kwanzaa. This […]

Hope everyone’s Christmas was complete with family and happiness. If you thought that such a spirit lives for a few moments in December, you are indeed wrong and perhaps exhausted. There follows more family time and appreciation for any Black souls that share, also, a need for little historical significance in their life. Today is […]

by Benji Hart       1. I’m a teenager, attending the annual Kwanzaa celebration at Amherst College, the small private school where my dad is a professor. A modest band of Black students and faculty have gathered for dinner in the Octagon. The plaster building, lemon meringue in both color and texture, was reclaimed […]

About a week ago, my family and I got together to play some trivia. During one of my turns to choose a category, I picked a round that focused on the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. because I figured it would be fair and give everyone a fair chance. My 15-year-old cousin immediately put that […]

There is a major difference between appropriating and appreciating a culture. I love watching anime and reading manga, I appreciate the story lines and the artistic styles. Though I do not participate, many fans attend anime conventions fully costumed which is acceptable because it is apart of the event. Outside of this space, costume wearing […]

  The following post originally appeared on Slate under the title, “Where I’m From: How a trip to Kenya changed the way I think about the terms African-American and black American.” By: Aisha Harris One of the first times I recall being asked the question “Where are you from?” was also one of the first […]