The Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre and Evanston Public Library, as presenters, invited all to celebrate Kwanzaa and Hanukkah for two free City of Evanston events Monday, Dec. 26 as snow flurries fell in downtown Evanston at Fountain Square.
First, there was the Community Sharing event held outdoors at Fountain Square at Davis Street and Sherman Avenue. Then there was a three hour annual Kwanzaa Festival at the Robert Crown Community Center in the Logan Family Gym that began at 1 p.m. The memory maker included family oriented activities, a drum circle, artisan and food vendors, dancing and storytelling among numerous amenities that afternoon.
The 11 a.m. Fountain Square sharing program opened with a contemporary interpretive dance piece performed by Kaleigh Dent of Andersonville.
Dent works in administration at Dance Center of Evanston and has a performance art emphasis in primary, tap and jazz dance.
The song Dent performed to, dancing on snowy plaza surface conditions, was “Wake Up Everybody.” Dent’s presentation included dramatic airborne moments.
“It’s a song about community and bringing people together,” Dent said. “It’s just kind of a celebratory piece. It’s an honor to be asked to do this performance for Kwanzaa which is really nice.”
The first candle of the Kwanzaa, the center black candle, was illuminated on Fountain Square’s oversized Kwanzaa kinara candelabra. The first candle of Kwanzaa was also illuminated in a ceremony at the Kwanzaa Festival at the Crown center.
Behind the kinara at Fountain Square was Evanston’s tall menorah for Hanukkah. The last candle of Hanukkah was illuminated on Monday.
This year, Hanukkah began Dec. 18 and ended on Dec. 26. Kwanzaa began on Dec. 26 and ends on Jan. 1, New Year’s Day.
“This is exciting, first day of Kwanzaa, last day of Hanukkah … the religious holiday as well as the cultural holiday of Kwanzaa,” said Tim Rhoze of Evanston, artistic director of the Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre. “And because the first day of Kwanzaa is represented by the first principle of Kwanzaa which is umoja, and umoja means unity, what better way to bring the community together than to have unity here in Fountain Square in downtown Evanston.”
“These things are all in alignment for our community to start getting beyond just the healing process but begin thriving again as a community,” Rhoze said.
Kwanzaa’s seven days of principles include unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity and faith.
The kinara candles include black to represent the people, red for their struggle and green for the future. The center candle is black, the only candle in black and the first candle to be illuminated on the kinara.
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Kwanzaa was launched by founder Dr. Maulana Karenga in 1966.
Speakers at the Fountain Square event portion included Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss, Rabbi Andrea London of Evanston and Evanston’s Beth Emet Synagogue and Rev. Ken Cherry, pastor of Evanston’s Christ Temple Missionary Baptist Church. Cherry is also recreation manager of the Fleetwood-Jourdain Community Center.
“We are better together,” Cherry said. “It’s a wonderful thing for all the communities to come together. Holidays are not just about religion, they’re also about culture.”
Cherry said that it’s wonderful to celebrate different religions in the same way we celebrate America as a “blended, cooperative culture.”
“It’s all of these cultures coming together so it just looks like America to me,” Cherry said.
Rabbi London said to the audience, “How can we continue to rise in holiness? The only way we do that is by coming together and living the values of compassion, of justice, of peace, of love, and doing it together in unity.”
Mayor Biss shared thoughts about the principles of Kwanzaa and Hanukkah.
“These are two celebrations that really fundamentally are about what we cannot possibly accomplish alone, but about the limitless things which we can accomplish together,” Biss said. “Yes, with faith, yes, with a belief in community, but also with one another, arm in arm, helping each other day in and day out. And I think that that’s a really important thing for us to carry with us as we go into 2023.”
Karie Angell Luc is a freelance reporter with Pioneer Press.