GDW EVENT ALERT 2021 ASALH Presents the 2021 Black History Month VIRTUAL FESTIVAL

By Gloria Dulan-Wilson

Hello All:

We are on the eve of celebrating the 95th Anniversary of Black History month (originally known as NEGRO HISTORY WEEK).  However, many do not realize that Black History Month started out as NEGRO HISTORY WEEK and was started on February 7, 1926 by the great Black historian CARTER G. WOODSON.  As a child in Oklahoma City, OK, we celebrated Negro History Week every year by giving performances, doing poetry recitals and highlighting Black people who had done something great in history, or who was doing something great then.  My parents, peers, people in my community, and all the Black schools in Oklahoma City, as well as Tulsa, Langston, Olkmulgee, and the all Black cities of Oklahoma celebrated Black History - which, according to Dr. Woodson, was founded in February because both Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln - two men he greatly admired - were born in February. 

Thanks to CARTER G. WOODSON who wrote THE MIS-EDUCATION OF THE NEGRO, devoted his life to the research of the history of Black people, and the education of Black people to their greatness.  He was our personal hero in Oklahoma City, where our teachers were devoted to teaching us Black history simultaneously with the requisite curricula of the caucasoid educational system.  As a result, we excelled on both levels.  I'm so happy to see that the organization is still in effect and doing some wonderful things in maintaining the research and information on Black people, past, present, future - culturally, societally, historically, intellectually, spiritually, and physically. 

I urge you to not only participate in this most informative event,  but to become a contributing member, as well as get your children and youth involved in supporting and participating in their efforts and activities.  This is the time to re-wind to some of the things our people used to do prior to (dis)integration.  Every year during Negro History Week my classmates and I were given little brown envelopes to put donations in them to send to Dr. Woodson in Washington DC in order to help underwrite his continuing research on Black History and our stolen legacy.  Back then a quarter was like a dollar today - so if you can imagine 1200 students from kindergarten through 12th grade making contributions to The ASALH (Formerly the Association For the Study of Negro Life and History), and then celebrating what they had learned thus far as a result of what he had already written about, it was a powerful incentive for Black pride.  And believe me, we Oklahoma Kids had a lot of Black pride and Black love coming up - and we still have it as adults.  This is something that our children (and a goodly number of our adults) need to put into practice again.  I can remember being in plays and performances, reciting Langston Hughes, Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Frederick Douglass, singing (or trying to) like Marion Anderson, and commemorating so many of our wonderful Black s/heroes of the day. 

It's interesting that we are now in the 21st Century and would be hard pressed to find a Black school today that followed the sage advice of Dr. Woodson - or utilized the body of research in educating the Black youth they are in charge of.  I find it tragic that there are so many who are prone to follow meanstream denigration of Black people while there is so much information to the contrary already garnered by Dr. Woodson, and continues to be researched and published by the ASALH.

Soooo....to catch up, to become involved, informed and to share this information with your peers and your children, or in your classroom, mark your calender, join the organization, start making it a central focus of who we are and why we are so wonderful (and we truly are).  If you are not familiar with Dr. CARTER G. WOODSON, or have never read any of his writings - I strongly suggest you get at least one book and read it - you will be amazed at how far ahead of the times he was, and how far behind we've become.  It's time to play catch up and begin to reeducate ourselves to more than just the contemporary racist issues, but to the very real solutions that have been sitting there awaiting our implementation.   While you're at it you should also get your hands on the unabridged version of Marcus Garvey's Opinions and Dr. W.E.B. DuBois Philadelphia Negro; Frederick Douglass' My Bondage & My Freedom, as well as the more contemporary authors like Ta Nahisi Coates, and others.  These are our saints and sages.  These are the men/women Dr. Woodson does not want us to forget.  While we're in the midst of demonstrations, we should also be assemblying our own Black Study Groups.

 Click on the link below:

https://asalh.org/calendar/foodways/?fbclid=IwAR3BnAh0O3ubEq4f3iVY_2dWXYQ2lo9MLyWCmpaK1oh5YvvPYRV99F5s6XU

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From the Continent to the Americas: Foodways, Culture and Traditions in the African American Family

https://asalh.org/calendar/foodways/?fbclid=IwAR3BnAh0O3ubEq4f3iVY_2dWXYQ2lo9MLyWCmpaK1oh5YvvPYRV99F5s6XU

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From the Continent to the Americas: Foodways, Culture and Traditions in the African American Family

February 6 @ 12:00 pm - 2:00 pm EST

FREE COMMUNITY EVENT — OPEN TO PUBLIC

From the Continent to the Americas: Foodways, Culture and Traditions in the African American Family

This event will feature a panel of authors, chefs and historians who will share their work and discuss the important role that food has played in Black family life throughout the diaspora.

Panelists include: Gina Paige, CEO and Founder of African Ancestry (www.africanancestry.com ); Carla Hall, author and celebrity chef; Stephanie Evans, scholar and author, Georgia State University; and Daphne Maxwell Reid, actor (Fresh Prince of Bel Air) and author of “Grace, Soul and Mother Wit” will join us for this exciting event!

Click here on the day and time of the event to view this program on ASALH TV.

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Details

Date:   February 6

Time:  12:00 pm - 2:00 pm EST

Event Categories:   ASALH TV, Branch Events, National Events, Virtual Festival

Website:  https://asalh.org/festival/

Venue   ASALH TV

Website:  https://www.youtube.com/c/ASALHTV/

Organizer  ASALH

Phone:  202-238-5910

Website:    https://asalh.org/

• « Charles A. Brown-Birmingham Branch of ASALH, Black Heritage Fair
• Athens, GA Branch of ASALH, Reaching for the Ancestors: Finding Your African American Family’s Genealogy »

CONTACT   Monday-Friday
9:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.
301 Rhode Island Avenue, NW
Suite 2204
Washington, DC 20001

Ph. 202-238-5910

Hours:

OUR MISSION   The mission of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH®) is to promote, research, preserve, interpret and disseminate information about Black life, history and culture to the global community.

The Association for the Study of African American Life and History (EIN: 53-0219640) is a tax-exempt 501 (c)(3) organization. Contributions to ASALH are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.

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NOW THAT YOU KNOW

WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?

Stay Blessed &

ECLECTICALLY BLACK

Gloria DULAN-Wilson