Kwanzaa Celebration to Focus on Young People
Event is Friday at the College of Staten Island in Willowbrook

Staten Island Advance - Tuesday, December 04, 2007

The beauty, magic and wonder of Kwanzaa will come alive once again this year on Friday, when the 31st annual Kwanzaa celebration unfolds at the College of Staten Island.

The festivities will begin at 7 p.m. in the Concert Hall of the Center for Performing Arts on the Willowbrook campus.

Those attending the free program can expect to see a spectacle of lavish costumes, dance moves, poetry, music, sights and sounds all dedicated to celebrating the African and African-American experience.

With this year's theme of "Passing the Torch to Our Youth," the event will focus on young people, said Professor Charles Thomas, past chairman of the college's Performing and Creative Arts Department, and program director and coordinator.

"The reason we chose to focus on youth is because you can see there's a need to really reach out to the youth today and to give them a more positive picture of those people who are really doing something with their lives and to impress on them that they should stay in school, get their education and try to build themselves as professionals -- things that are aligned with the principles of Kwanzaa," he said.

With the accent on youth this year, Thomas said the event will feature more performances by youth groups. Those will include the Drum and Dance Ensemble of PS 14 teacher Harold Williams; several stepping groups, including the Peppermint Steppers, the Lady Panthers, and students from Susan Wagner High School under the direction of Nancy Poku; The Future, an R & B youth group from the Stapleton Community Center, and a youth group under the direction of College of Staten Island alumna Nubia Braithwaite.

Special guests will include Lou Myers, probably best known as Vernon Gaines in the sitcom "A Different World"; flute legend Bobbi Humphrey; Frank Lucas Jr., a rapper and son of the heroin dealer and organized Harlem crime boss of the late 1960s and early 1970s whose life is limned in the film "American Gangster," and Terry Rowden, an English professor.

Also performing will be positive-themed rapper Philos, and drummers Horace Wilson, Olusemi and Somuyiwa will perform with master drummer Hakeem Bilal Ali.

Staten Island's own Kwanzaa Lady, Janet Robinson, also will participate.

There will also be performances by students from the college's Performing Arts Department.

This year's event is underwritten by the Black Male Initiative of the Discovery Center of The City University of New York. Other sponsors include the CSI African American Studies program and the Performing and Creative Arts Department.

The evening also will feature a Kwanzaa feast: On offer will be soul, West Indian and African food, including fried and curried chicken, curried goat, jerk chicken, peas and rice, cabbage, salads, desserts and beverages.

Kwanzaa, which runs from Dec. 26 through Jan. 1, was created to honor and celebrate the contributions and heritage of African and African-American peoples, as well as recognize the ancestors whose work made their advancement possible.

For more information, phone 718-982-2544 or contact Professor Thomas at Thomas@mail.csi.cuny.edu.

By Kiawana Rich
Reprinted here with permission from the