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HARAMBEE

PRE-KWANZAA FESTIVAL

Y2KWANZAA.ORG’s MISSION STATEMENT

Y2Kwanzaa.Org is an Illinois not-for-profit, 501(c)3, tax exempt corporation, organized exclusively for the Charitable and educational purpose of advancing the awareness and understanding of culture, through providing creative arts education, touring cultural performances, lecture demonstrations, trainings workshops, and the distribution of prevention material that promote holistic health and highlight positive examples of productive behavior designed to benefit Communities of Color.

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Song for the second principle in the Nguzo Saba, Kujichagulia from the Seven Principles CD featured, in the Harambee Pre-Kwanzaa Festival.

Craft America Video

Y2Kwanzaa.Org

is founder and producer of the Harambee Pre-Kwanzaa Festival daytime show, and the Harambee Na Nguzo Saba evening community Kwanzaa celebrations since 1994.  Y2Kwanzaa.org’s events have been annual holiday programs, traditionally promoted during the month of December. Harambee Pre Kwanzaa Festival reached a high point in attendance in 2007 as indicated in the Chicago Tribune article. Harambee Na Nguzo Saba was one of the largest one-day community Kwanzaa celebration in the country. Evidenced by Craft America's coverage of the event in 2015. See Craft America video below.

“The PROUD FAMILY”

It's Kwanzaa Time

featured in the

 “PROUD FAMILY" 
Disney’s animated Stitcom

SEVEN PRINCIPLES

the first complete contemporary collection of original songs for the celebration of Kwanzaa!

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Kwanzaa gets an early hip-hop kickoff 6,000 students gather as performers in traditional African clothing explore the holiday through skits, song and dance.

By Tribune Staff Reporter and Ryan Haggerty

December 13, 2007

 

Kwanzaa doesn’t begin until Dec. 26, but the Pan-African celebration got off to quite the unofficial start Wednesday in a church on Chicago’s Southside.

About 6,500 elementary and high school students from Chicago, the south suburbs and northwest Indiana swayed, sang and clapped in unison at the House of Hope, 752 E. 114th St., as performers wearing traditional African clothing explored the holiday through skits, song and dance.

The Harambee Pre-Kwanzaa Festival, held every December since 1993, teaches young African Americans about their ancestry and cultural heritage by mixing ancient traditions with modern art forms such as hip-hop and break dancing, said Kwame Steve Cobb, 54, the festival’s co-founder.

“We hope it will raise questions among the children about values and about historical perspective, and about who you are in the world,” Cobb said. “The whole idea is if our children know who they are and love who they are, then they will aspire to excellence because they will know that they came from excellence.”

Cobb and his wife, Chavunduka, led a drummer, two guitarists, a keyboardist and backup singers while performing funk, hip-hop and reggae-infused songs about each of Kwanzaa’s seven principles: unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity and faith.

“We believe that music is one of the most powerful conduits for transmitting concepts and ideas,” Cobb said. “It gives us a medium to connect with the children. They love hip-hop, so we give them hip-hop with a positive message.”

Shaunda Partida, a kindergarten teacher at Alain Locke Charter Academy in East Garfield Park, said the festival caught the attention of her pupils. “It seems like they’ve learned quite a bit already,” Partida said. “They finally have an opportunity to learn about the principles in a great, interactive environment.”

Kwanzaa is a non-religious cultural holiday created in the U.S. in 1966 to help foster a stronger sense of community among people with African roots. Itis modeled in part on harvest celebrations in ancient Africa and is celebrated each year from Dec. 26 to Jan. 1.