Join the Town of Manchester’s Neighborhoods & Families Division for a free Black History Month Celebration on Friday, February 18 from 6-8 PM at the Culture Lab at Mahoney Center, 110 Cedar Street.

With events including special speakers, performers, food, and children’s activities, come on out and celebrate Black History as a united Manchester community.

The current speaker slate features several local voices, including:

• Manchester Poet Laureate Ryan Parker
• Black Joy Poetry Contest Winners
• African-American & Black Affairs Council
• Poets Kwasi & Vida Veronica Ntem-Mensah
• Abu Alvin Carter, Sr.

The celebration will kick off with a prerecorded libation performed by Abu Alvin Carter, Sr. For those unfamiliar, a libation is a traditional African ceremony that gives homage to one’s ancestors & acknowledges the sacrifices they made for the betterment of their future communities. These ceremonies have become ever more prominent across modern cultural & artistic events, serving as a way to remember the traditions of bygone eras.

The Black Joy Poetry Contest, coordinated by Manchester Public School’s Department of Race & Equity in partnership with the Neighborhoods & Families Division, is a contest for youth poets in grades preschool-12 to “create poems that stick to the theme of Black being joyful, beautiful [and] necessary.” A committee of poets, led by Manchester’s Poet Laureate Ryan Parker, will award up to six poets who will have the opportunity to perform at the event.

All submitted poems will then be compiled & posted in Better Manchester Magazine’s Perspectives in Righting. Check back in during February to read poems from some of the brightest of Manchester’s youth.

Following these youth performances, The African American and Black Affairs Council (AABAC) will give a virtual speech themed around the topic of Black history. The AABAC “is an organization that empowers, supports, and advocates for the Black community in Manchester, CT.” For further details on the AABAC & their involvement within the local community, follow along on their Facebook page.

Finally, the ceremony will conclude with poetry performances by Kwasi Ntem-Mensah and his daughter, Vida Veronica Ntem-Mensah. Kwasi currently serves as the Fatherhood Initiative Coordinator for ECHN’s Family Development Center. Vida Veronica is a youth poet who has contributed to the “Poetry Bus,” a project that highlighted youth poems from the Charter Oak Cultural Center’s Youth Arts Institute on a CTtransit bus.

In addition to these local performers, there will be free children’s chapter books & activity sheets all centered on the theme of black history, notably historical figures such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Jackie Robinson, and many more. These free children’s resources are courtesy of the Town of Manchester’s Youth Service Bureau.

For those unable to attend in person, the event will be streamed on the Neighborhoods and Families Division’s Facebook page.

The Town of Manchester Neighborhoods & Families Division’s Black History Month Celebration is a time for unity across the Manchester community. All are welcome to come out to enjoy several unique Manchester voices from all walks of life & celebrate Black History as a collective whole.

Questions? Contact Culture Lab Coordinator James Costa.