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
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