‘A lot that was taken, we can retrieve now’: Marking the first day of Kwanzaa in Chicagoland

As the Chicago area experienced its first taste of a reprieve from several days of snowy and dangerously cold temperatures, residents on Monday gathered across the region to mark the start of Kwanzaa, the weeklong celebration honoring African American history and culture.

In Evanston, community members gathered in a snowy Fountain Square for a joint celebration marking the first day of Kwanzaa and the last day of Hanukkah, which both fell on Monday.

Pastor Ken Cherry of Christ Temple Church spoke in front of the city’s public kinara and menorah display, as did Rabbi Andrea London of Beth Emet The Free Synagogue and Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss.

“Kwanzaa gives the African diaspora some cultural background to say that a lot that was lost, we can get it back. A lot that was taken, we can retrieve now,” Cherry said. “It’s a blessing and it’s a miracle that after losing so much, it can be regained.”

Biss, who described the overlap between Kwanzaa and Hanukkah as a “calendrical coincidence,” also made connections between the two holidays. “There’s basic pride, a basic sense of communal and national pride,” he said, as well as the “bittersweet experience of diaspora” and the “essential nature of collaboration.”

Evanston resident Gilo Kwesi Logan said he came to the celebration to honor both cultures and traditions.

“To me, it’s symbolic of the alliance between Jewish and Black people historically, particularly in terms of overcoming oppression,” said Logan, a diversity consultant. He brought his 6-year-old son, Ali Salif Logan, to the Monday celebration.

“Too many of our people think that our history began with slavery, so it’s important that he has a sense of identity that’s grounded in our culture, that’s grounded in history,” Logan said. “The parts of that that I grew up with, I want to pass it on, and the parts that I didn’t, it’s my responsibility to be a part of creating that and passing that on.”

Nearly 30 miles south of Evanston, young children and their families filed into the Bronzeville Children’s Museum in Calumet Heights for Kwanzaa programming that included storytelling, music, face painting and arts and crafts.

“They must realize the value of their history, our African American history,” said Peggy Montes, the founder and president of the museum, which has hosted the Kwanzaa event for more than two decades. “It’s something that should always be taught and appreciated.”

Children and their families sang “Lift Every Voice and Sing” and “This Little Light of Mine” on Monday afternoon. They also took photographs with a man dressed as the Kwanzaa King.

On each day of Kwanzaa, a new candle on the seven-branched kinara is lit, each representing one of seven principles. On the first day, that principle is umoja, which means unity in Swahili. At Monday’s event the museum’s program director, Margaret Galloway, read a children’s book called “My First Kwanzaa” by Karen Katz, which describes each principle of the holiday.

Galloway also asked the assembled children what they would do to make the world better.

“Help my family and help the neighborhood,” said Phoenix Martin, age 6.

Martin came to the Kwanzaa celebration with her mom, D’Shaun Williams, of Pill Hill.

Williams said she brought her daughter to the museum because she wanted to share the importance of the celebration and African American history and culture with her.

“Unity, peace, purpose,” Williams said. “That’s what we’re here to learn about today.”