New Haven Independent

The occasion: the Board of Aldermen Black and Hispanic Caucus’s sixth annual Kwanzaa celebration on Monday evening in City Hall. The ceremony landed on the third day of the week-long nationwide festival, which celebrates African culture and heritage. The holiday was created in 1966.

The centerpiece of Monday’s festivities was a rhythm and dance performance by a group of African drummers led by New Haven native Kendrick Baker. The group treated the dozens of people in attendance to a high-energy blast of drum work, coupled with exuberant traditional dance. Click the play arrow above to experience a sample.

The ceremony also featured dance performances by members of the Hamden Academy of Dance and a poetry reading by former Alderwoman Sallie Brooker.

Alderman Jorge Perez, head of the Black and Hispanic Caucus, encouraged people to live in accord with the seven principals of Kwanzaa.

The seven principles of Kwanzaa are:

• Umoja (Unity): To strive for and to maintain unity in the family, community, nation, and race.
• Kujichagulia (Self-Determination): To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves, and speak for ourselves.
• Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility): To build and maintain our community together and make our brothers’ and sisters’ problems our problems, and to solve them together.
• Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics): To build and maintain our own stores, shops, and other businesses and to profit from them together.
• Nia (Purpose): To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.
• Kuumba (Creativity): To do always as much as we can, in the way we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it.
Imani (Faith):

Click here for Tom Ficklin’s slide show from the event.