City Colleges of Chicago to Host Kwanzaa Celebration at Malcolm X College, Free and Open to the Public

City Colleges of Chicago to Host Kwanzaa Celebration at Malcolm X College, Free and Open to the Public

CHICAGO — Malcolm X College has a strong history of celebrating
Kwanzaa and for more than 16 years. This year the celebration will begin at 10 a.m. and last until 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 27. A procession and drum call will be held at noon to begin the program. Event goers will enjoy live performances and shopping all courtesy of local artisans. The public is also sure to enjoy performances by, Najwa Dance Corps and Joan Collasco.

This event celebrating Kwanzaa is free and open to the public and will
be held on the first floor of Malcolm X College, located at 1900 W Jackson
Street in Chicago. Free garage parking is available in Malcolm X College’s
parking garage which can be accessed from Jackson Street.

Kwanza is an annual celebration of African-American culture that is held
Monday-Sunday, Dec. 26 to Jan. 1. It was created by Maulana Karenga and is rooted in the African Harvest festival traditions from various countries. Kwanzaa was first celebrated in 1966 and celebrates the seven principles of Kwanzaa, or Nguzo Saba. These seven principles comprise Kawaida, a Swahili word meaning “common”.

Each of the seven days of Kwanzaa is dedicated to one of the principles,
as follows:

Umoja (Unity): To strive for and to maintain unity in the family, community,
nation, and race.

Kujichagulia (Self-Determination): To define and name ourselves, as well
as to create 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): To believe with all our hearts in our people, our parents,
our teachers, our leaders, and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.

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