ROCK ISLAND, Ill. — Get ready for a free evening of celebrating culture and creativity!
The Quad City Kwanzaa Celebration returns on Thursday, Dec. 28. Festivities kick off at 5 p.m. with a vendor fair running until 6:30 p.m., when the evening's programming begins.
It'll all be at the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center at 630 9th St. in Rock Island.
The Quad City's Kwanzaa Celebration will combine speakers, poetry, dancing, traditional clothing, drumming, kids crafts and more. The free event is open to anyone in the community.
Attendees are also encouraged to bring a canned or non-perishable food item with them. All the gathered food will be given to Rock Island's Second Baptist Church food pantry.
Kwanzaa, which comes from the Swahili phrase matunda ya kwanza meaning "first fruits," was started in the 1960s by Maulana Ron Karenga. Traditionally it's a seven-day celebration for African American and Pan-African families and communities to celebrate history, family, culture, values and community.
It's a non-religious holiday. Instead, each of the seven days is a chance to recognize one of the seven Kwanzaa principles:
- Unity
- Self-determination
- Collective Responsibility
- Cooperative Economics
- Purpose
- Creativity
- Faith
Each principle is emphasized on a specific day, with families often coming together to light candles and discuss that day's principle.
One of the Quad Cities Kwanzaa co-organizers, Shellie Moore Guy, joined The Current on News 8 to discuss the 2023 celebration and how the QCA community can get involved. You can watch her full interview in the above video.
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