AFRO LUTHERAN CHICAGO MATTERS, a voice of Metro Chicago Synod’s Black Lutheran clergy and lay leaders concerned, hosts SOULFUL CHICAGO BLACK HISTORY MONTH BOOK FAIR, Saturday, February 25th, 2017, from 10 AM to 6 PM, at the Library Auditorium of Lutheran School of Theology, East 55th & University, Hyde Park.
“In the tradition of Dr. Carter G. Woodson (1875-1950), founder of the original Negro History Week (1926) that was transformed, since the Black Freedom Movement ‘SIXTIES,’ into Black History Month, our Book Fair is an act of both unity and struggle-especially in the current era of international BLACK LIVES MATTER MOVEMENT on the one hand and on the other the tragic emergence of Trumpism” observes Rev. Joel Washington (Khunanpu Sangoma) of AFRO LUTHERAN CHICAGO MATTERS (ALCM).
ALCM understands its Black Book Fair project as integral to the annual first quarter round of holidays of the Black Freedom Movement Cultural Calendar beginning with Kwanzaa’s 7th Day of Meditation, Haitian Independence Day, and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Day observances in January, that all segue into February’s Black History Month.
According to the famed Howard University Department of History professor, Dr. Rayford Logan (1897-1982), one can say, in tribute to Dr. Woodson’s Black History movement achievement, “there are two basic periods of Black Historiography i.e., before and after Carter G. Woodson.” Meaning that it was the Dr. Woodson led Black History movement, supported by the Black masses, that rescued and restored Black History to its proper place as central to African American/African world self-understanding and the understanding of both American and World history.
“Our Book Fair” says Rev. Washington (Sangoma), “unfolds remembering that Dr. Woodson originally anchored his first (Black) History Week observance on the February 14th birthday of Frederick Douglas (1818-1895), Editor & Publisher of the influential Black abolitionist newspaper, North Star.” Rev. Washington (Sangoma) further adds “Douglas’ first struggle was the struggle to learn to read and write in a period when enslaved African literacy and literacy education were outlawed by the established order.”
“Our Book Fair, then, is an act of resistance and struggle in the Douglas tradition against forces today that would have us, in the name of established order patriotism, forget the stoney road we trod not only to read and write our own history but to also remain true to the ongoing freedom struggle of our ancestors both in America, through out the Black Diaspora, and across Mother Africa” says Rev. Washington invoking words from the traditional African American National Anthem, “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”
Rev. Washington (Sangoma) finally observes “African American faith-based communities owe a special debt of remembrance to Dr. Woodson’s contributions to Black Historiography.” The Black Lutheran pastor adds “African American Church women and men should always remember and never forget that it was Dr. Woodson who first painstakingly researched and published the first comprehensive history of the distinctive sacred institution housing the faith, hope, and love of our fore fathers and mothers i.e., the historic Black Freedom Church(es) in America.”
SOULFUL CHICAGO BLACK HISTORY (MONTH) BOOK FAIR features:
- Over 50 Black Books authors and publishers organized by genre i.e., non-fiction, fiction, and children’s’ books
- A central stage for performing artists of diverse art forms
- Continuous showing of the PBS documentary: “Black History Since MLK-And Still I Rise” by Dr. Henry Louis Gates
- 1st Annual Challenging Colorlines Conversation on RESURGENT WHITENESS & BLACK THEOLOGY with National Black Evangelical Association CEO, Dr. Walter McCray, author of “African Presence in the Bible” & “Pro Christ, Pro Cross & Pro Black” interviewed by AFRO LUTHERAN CHICAGO MATTERS, with Dr. Margaret King of Chicago State University’s Pan African Women’s Project
- Opening VIP Breakfast with leading lawyers and judges of the Cook County Bar Association informally known as SOUTH SIDE JUDGES’ TABLE FELLOWSHIP (SOUTHSHIP)
- Concluding Sacred Jazz Vespers (Evening Candle Light Service) with the SACRED JAZZ MESSENGERS of Reformation Church Chicago, others
More, the upcoming SOULFUL CHICAGO BLACK HISTORY (MONTH) BOOK FAIR is endorsed by the Chicago Chapter of the African Descent Lutheran Association (ADLA-CHICAGO) and serves as a unique means of promoting its membership development.
Contact: Deacon Marsha Washington, Reformation Church-Chicago, 773-996-1066.
Respectfully submitted: Rev. Joel Washington (Khunanpu Sangoma), Pastor of Reformation Church Chicago (“Young Barack Obama’s 1980s sanctuary for Pullmanland community organizing”) and for AFRO LUTHERAN CHICAGO MATTERS, New Media Ministry of Reformation, 2-4-17.
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