My Brothers and My Sisters

I just spoke with a community outreach coordinator for the art gallery of a large university in town. We were talking about Hispanic Heritage Family Day this Sunday, a free family event with lots of cultural activities.

She said the gallery holds free events like that all year long. Some are based on exhibitions at the gallery and some are culturally based, such as Asian-Pacific American Family Day. This Hispanic Family Day typically draws 1,600 folks. But the event that draws the lowest amount of people is Kwanzaa Day.

IDK if it's because the event takes place the last week of December when many people are traveling for the holidays. I have no clue - I'm not from here. But I think that's pretty telling. What incentive do they have to try to provide programming for African Americans if people don't really support it?

To be fair, she said about 800 people come out....but trust me, there are WAY more than 800 black people in this city. And while you might say 800 is still pretty good, it's half the figure for the Hispanic day, so, relatively speaking, that is low.

I'll be real, here - IDK if I would be all that interested in a Kwanzaa day...but if I had a family I might, and I'm always interested in free and enriching activities. I'm just saying - since I've been here I've heard people bemoan the lack of activities for "the kids" to do, which is why they're "running in the streets." Well, here's one!