Learn to celebrate Kwanzaa |
By Beth Goodrich |
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Experience something new this holiday season by attending a free Kwanzaa Workshop. Coordinating the event is Jahi Bakari, an alumni of SIUE and executive director of the Bakari Institute, an African-centered, cultural arts youth organization. The institute is sponsoring the event which will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday at Telger Hall's Carlo Auditorium, 3550 Lindell Ave., St. Louis. "Kwanzaa is a seven-day, African-American, nonreligious, nonheroic holiday created in 1966," Bakari said. The workshop will include traditional African food, music, dancing and jewelry. Everyone in the St. Louis metropolitan area is invited to attend. Children are also welcome to the workshop. "The purpose of this workshop is to create not only awareness of the holiday but give accurate information as well," Bakari said. "A lot of people try to create Kwanzaa ceremonies, but they tend to be inaccurate on a few details because information on the holiday is scarce. They don't really have a clue about Kwanzaa. It can be quite cumbersome to try to create a Kwanzaa ceremony by yourself, so we decided to put together a complete workshop to help," Bakari said. The event is sponsored by several government organizations: the Illinois Arch Council, the Missouri Arch Council, the Regional Arts Committee and the Committee for Local Access and Original Programming. "The workshop is sponsored by noncommercialized organizations because it is very important that Kwanzaa is not commercialized because the holiday was created for the self-improvement of the African-American community," Bakari said. For more information, call Jahi Bakari at (618) 414-0202. | |