Nia means Purpose On the fifth day we think about the principal of purpose which is popularly defined as, “To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.”Our traditional greatness is dependent on each of our individual greatness. In order to unlock each […]
Ujamaa means Cooperative Economics As we move further into the celebration of Kwanzaa we can see how each principal builds upon the next. Cooperative Economics calls for each of the characteristics we’ve learned, unity in our thinking as a community, the motivation of self-determination and the ability to responsibly work collectively. Ujamaa or cooperative economics […]
Kwanzaa Why not extend the holiday season with some uplifting cultural attention? The first day of Kwanzaa, December 26th, begins the day after Christmas. For years I thought of Kwanzaa as the ‘Black’ Christmas, an either or type of thing. I thought to myself as a child, I want the regular Christmas, the one you […]
When I thought about getting more done to the tattoo between my shoulder blades that I’d originally got earlier in the year, I knew that I wanted to support a Black owned business. This is something that I try to do in as many areas of my life as possible from the restaurants I eat […]
The First Annual 206 Zulu Gala On Saturday November 5th, 206 Zulu is an organization that caught my eye when I first visited Pongo’s office in the historic Washington Hall building on 14th Ave. 206 Zulu works to empower local communities ranging from youth, low income and people of color in the Seattle region by […]
Now There are NO Mistakes at this Genocidal Rate Chance Gittens was 17 years old, one of his last Facebook posts read, “An entire sea of water can’t sink a ship unless it gets inside the ship. Similarly, the negativity of the world can’t put you down unless you allow it to get inside of […]
New Season, New Location This Fall season of the Black Arts Mixer and Marketplace warmed my heart almost as much as the sun warmed the leaves falling from the autumn struck trees. Fall is here and the new season perfectly matched the newly located of the mixer, previously held at Garfield High school’s gymnasium now […]
The day that the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAACHC) finally opened to the public September 24, 2016 I vowed to go there as soon as possible. I’d never been to a museum that celebrated African American History and I was also gripped by it’s opening during the historic moment of […]
It’s August 19th and I’m very pleased with the turnout of the Millions for Prisoners march as I write this on my flight back to Seattle from Washington D.C. It was October of last year when I got an unexpected direct message on twitter from an incarcerated individual who told me to get in touch […]
What my BSU gave me at my PWI: Five Essential C’s Attending the University of Washington, a predominantly white institution (PWI) can be a draining experience, especially socially which can affect us academically, emotionally and even physically. I’d always dreamed of graduating high school and going to Spelman College, but my father (footing the bill […]