Transcripts

BRANDT WILLIAMS: The annual Kwanzaa production is a mix of storytelling and music. And as this video clip from last year's performance shows, there will be lots of energetic African dancing and drumming.

[DRUMMING]

All this began in a classroom at Lyndale Community School in 1996. Titilayo Bediako and her fellow teachers wondered how they could help Black students do better in school.

TITILAYO BEDIAKO: And I remember very distinctly the last time that one of my colleagues asked me that, and I said, I am going to start something that focuses in on Black children's successes rather than their failures.

BRANDT WILLIAMS: Bediako introduced her students to Kwanzaa, a cultural celebration created in 1966 by Ron Karenga, a California-based advocate for Afrocentric education. She says Kwanzaa is based on seven principles.

TITILAYO BEDIAKO: Unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity, and faith.

BRANDT WILLIAMS: Each day of Kwanzaa focuses on one principle. Bediako's students learned how people of African descent have relied on these principles to survive historic hardships and to make vital contributions to the world. She soon turned those lessons into an after-school educational enrichment program called the We Win Institute. Bediako designed we win to help students from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds improve in school by making them more confident young people. Chandra Nwasor, who is African-American, was part of the initial group of students to participate in We Win. She says. The experience was empowering.

CHANDRA NWASOR: What it really did, I think, for me was it brought back the-- it taught about Sankofa and getting back to our roots and our greatness, which is not a lot that I had growing up.

BRANDT WILLIAMS: Sankofa from the Twi language of Ghana means "go back and get it." Now, Nwasor has two children. Both are in the program, and one of them, her six-year-old son, will be in this year's Kwanzaa production. Nwasor says her kids have learned to be proud and aware of their ancestry. Her son's favorite Kwanzaa principle is self determination. Nwasor's four-year-old daughter has learned how to sing Lift Every Voice and Sing, otherwise, known as the Black national anthem. She says it's particularly important for young Black children to be exposed to positive messages about their culture.

CHANDRA NWASOR: We need to be, you know, teaching children about their history and their greatness a lot of times, especially in media and things. We're only hearing about the bad things that are going on or a lot of just negativity.

BRANDT WILLIAMS: Nwasor is one of many former students who are teaching their own kids about Kwanzaa. Bediako says she remembered running into a student she hadn't seen in 15 years. She says the woman has five children of her own. The woman hugged Bediako and thanked her.

TITILAYO BEDIAKO: And she said that I was her favorite teacher and how she takes the principles of Kwanzaa and how she teaches them to her children and what a difference it makes in terms of helping them learn how to love themselves.

BRANDT WILLIAMS: Bediako says while Black youth have a lot to gain from learning about Kwanzaa, she says the principles themselves are universal. She adds that many of her white and Asian students learned how to teach others about where they come from. Bediako says the Kwanzaa program at the Ordway will also be an opportunity for everyone to experience a sense of unity. Brandt Williams, Minnesota Public Radio News, Minneapolis.