Celebrating the seven principles since the 1970s, the 46th LGBTQ+ Kwanzaa celebration goes down at the SAGE Harlem Center this Saturday, Dec. 30.
Founder Imani Rashid, 83, first encountered the holiday almost half a century ago thanks to an Afrocentric alternative school her partner’s son attended. Back then, Kwanzaa was a fresh holiday created a decade prior by Maulana Karenga to celebrate pan-African heritage. Rashid soon pitched the holiday to Salsa Soul Sisters, the country’s oldest Black and brown lesbian organization now known as the African Ancestral Lesbians United for Societal Change.
“At the meeting, I introduced Kwanzaa and the sister that would become my very best, bestie said ‘if she wants to have Kwanzaa let her bring it here,’” said Rashid. “And I set the work to do that. That was 46 years ago.” […]
Click here to read the full piece. This story was originally published by New York Amsterdam News on December 22, 2023.
