{"id":82578,"date":"2025-12-28T09:56:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-28T09:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/82578\/"},"modified":"2025-12-28T09:56:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-28T09:56:09","slug":"staten-island-kwanzaa-celebration-community-gathers-despite-winter-weather","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/82578\/","title":{"rendered":"Staten Island Kwanzaa celebration: Community gathers despite winter weather"},"content":{"rendered":"

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 Despite the snowstorm, many gathered Friday night at the Central Family Life Center<\/a> to commemorate Kwanzaa. The celebration was hosted by Roc-A-Natural Cultural Foundation Inc<\/a>, and welcomed all to gather with family and community, celebrating the culture and history of Kwanzaa.<\/p>\n

The event aimed to embody umoja (unity), a principle emphasizing unity within family, nation, community and race, fostering stronger bonds between all attendees.<\/p>\n

Celebrated from Dec. 26 to Jan. 1, Kwanzaa focuses on the seven fundamental values of African culture, known as the \u2018Nguzo Saba\u2019 (Swahili for \u2018seven principles\u2019).<\/p>\n

Those who celebrate Kwanzaa will light a candle on a kinara, a seven-slot candle holder that symbolizes the seven principles of Kwanzaa: umoja (unity), kujichagulia (self-determination), ujima (collective work and responsibility), ujamaa (cooperative economics), nia (purpose), kuumba (creativity), and imani (faith).<\/p>\n

The Stapleton celebration Friday featured guest speaker Andrew Sekou Jackson, a librarian, author and professor of black studies in Queens. <\/p>\n

The celebration \u201creflected the spirit and values of our ancestry and culture,\u2019’ said Jackson.<\/p>\n

Throughout the night, there were features of African dances, performances by Miss Cheryl\u2019s Dance Company, a drumming circle and a procession. <\/p>\n

Dorcas Meyers, president of Roc-A-Natural Cultural Foundation Inc, expressed gratitude for those \u201cwho weathered the snow storm and gathered in the spirit of umoja \u2014 the first principle of Kwanzaa-to celebrate community, creativity, culture and collective power.”<\/p>\n

\u201cLast night\u2019s vibrant gathering brought together families, artists, entrepreneurs, elders, and youth for an evening rooted in tradition and connection,\u2019’ Meyers said.<\/p>\n

\"KwanzaaStaten Islanders come together to celebrate Kwanzaa with 4th annual event.Photos courtesy of Dorcas Meyers\"KwanzaaStaten Islanders come together to celebrate Kwanzaa with 4th annual event.Photos courtesy of Dorcas Meyers\"KwanzaaStaten Islanders come together to celebrate Kwanzaa with 4th annual event.Photos courtesy of Dorcas Meyers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 Despite the snowstorm, many gathered Friday night at the Central Family Life Center to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":82579,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-82578","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-staten-island","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-staten-island","12":"tag-staten-island-headlines","13":"tag-staten-island-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82578"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82578\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}