'UNCROWNED QUEENS' LEAD THE HOLIDAY PARADE (KWANZAA)

A dozen local African-American women were honored as "uncrowned queens" Wednesday evening during the opening of the seven-day Kwanzaa holiday.

More than 200 people, young and old, braved the snow to attend the festive event in the Langston Hughes Center for Visual & Performing Arts on High Street.

Peggy Brooke-Bertram introduced the uncrowned queens, whose names will be added to a Web site honoring women who have quietly enriched the black community.

"The uncrowned queens are women who have contributed to building the community," said Brooke-Bertram, who has been working with Barbara Nevergold on the world project. "You don't have to be president of some organization to be added to this list.

"You can be the hairdresser who made other women more beautiful. Or the storekeeper who extended credit when no one else would. And there are other women - the world can't work until you get up in the morning and change the diapers of other people's babies."

The local women honored were Bernice T. Keith, Debra M. Johnson, Dawn Wells, Tamara Ray, Annette Radford, Gwen Neal, Akua Assata, Vonetta T. Rhodes, Sabrina Jones, Kandee Nance, Aquira Adisa and Bilala Ka Ra.

The project was a spinoff of the recent centennial observance of the Pan-American Exhibition. In 1901, activist Mary Talbert organized 200 women to protest the event because of the degrading manner in which African-Americans were portrayed before some 8 million visitors to Buffalo.

"If you do not tell our story, others will write it for you," said Brooke-Bertram, who said the uncrowned queens' photos and biographies will be added to the Web site. It can be found at wings.buffalo.edu/uncrownedqueens

The women were honored late in the evening, after opening ceremonies marked by candle lighting, dancing and singing.

Anisha Hassan, dance teacher at the center, led the children in a drum call as several men in costume beat tribal drums, punctuated by a whistle blown to sound like a cricket by Chief Simba Mllee. The children did a quick-step dance in double time, with adults coming forward to play impromptu solos to the drums. "Something inside will heal you," Hassan told the crowd later, touching her chest. "It's from our ancestors."

Dawn Wells explained the symbols of Kwanzaa and the principle stressed during each of the seven days, starting with the first, unity. The celebration continues at various locations, stressing self-determination, creative work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity and faith.

Sandra Williams Bush told an African story about how all the organs of the body rose up against the stomach, which was receiving all of the food and enjoyed the title of president. They complained to the Creator, only to be warned, "Be careful what you say." After fasting for two days, all the organs realized that the body couldn't function without the stomach, which they then decided to promote to king.

Michael Hill, director of the center, welcomed the celebrators, and Modell Gault was master of ceremonies.

No Kwanzaa-related thread is complete without Spiff's KounterKwanzaa Link List:

Kwanzaa Links

We Wish You A Phony Festival - Report (Canadian Magazine)

So This Is Kwanzaa - Newsmax.com

Ann Coulter on Kwanzaa - TownHall.Com

Mona Charen on Kwanzaa - Jewish World Review

Tony Snow on Kwanzaa - Jewish World Review

The TRUE Spirit of Kwanzaa - The New American magazine

The Story of Kwanzaa - The Dartmouth Review

The Truth About Kwanzaa - A Christian Viewpoint

A Momentary Loss of Reason - Binghamton Review

Kwanzaa & The White House - NY Post Editorial, 1997 (Freerepublic.com thread)

Michael Savage on Kwanzaa - NewsMax

Ron Karenga - Dialog from the Black Radical Congress - December 1999

Happy Kwanzaa - FrontPage Magazine - Link may not work, if it doesn't click here for the Free Republic thread.

I'm Dreaming of a White Kwanzaa - LewRockwell.com - Link may not work, if it doesn't click here for the Free Republic thread.

Letter to Editor - Ypsilanti Courier

What is Kwanzaa? - File Passed Around On Internet About Kwanzaa

Happy Kwanzaa by Patrick S. Poole

Ron Everett (aka. Maulana Karenga) / US Links

The Black Panthers and the Police: A Pattern of Genocide? - NEW YORKER MAGAZINE - February 13, 1971 (Includes great detail of the murders committed by Karenga's thugs)

PBS Interview with black radical Ron Everett (aka Maulana Karenga) - the guy that invented Kwanzaa 5 years before going to prison for torturing two young women

US, the organization the Ron Everett founded in 1965, the organization that murdered 5 members of the rival Black Panther Party, is back - well it was back in 1995, but they haven't updated their website since then. Their website is here.

Afrocentrism Links

Clarence Walker Encourages Black Americans to Discard Afrocentrism

Pride & Prejudice by Dinesh D'Souza, Vol. 6, American Enterprise, 09-01-1995, pp 51 (Google Cached Version)

Fighting Fiction With Fact by Mary Lefkowitz (Google Cached Version)

Fallacies of Afrocentrism - Grover Furr

The Skeptics Dictionary - Afrocentrism

TEACHING REVERSE RACISM A strange doctrine of black superiority is finding its way into schools and colleges

The Skeptics Dictionary Review of Mary Lefkowitz' Book "Not Out Of Africa"

Review of Mary Lefkowitz' Books on Afrocentrism Myth "Not Out Of Africa" and "Black Athena Revisited"

The Trap of Ethnic Identity - New York Times - Jan 1997

AFROCENTRISM The Argument We're Really Having

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