The two most visible displays will be an exhibit at City Hall consisting of stories and pictures that highlight the Civil Rights movement, and a display of more than 30 photographs taken of a rural community near Dakar, the capital of Senegal, by Lutricia Alexander, a Hoboken city employee.
Views of Africa
In an attempt to learn more about her culture and history, Alexander traveled to Senegal in the summer of 2006, where over a few weeks she traveled through the city and countryside, taking pictures of the scenery and local inhabitants.
Minister Shirley M. Dennis, the curator of the exhibit, said, "Knowing our history and where we come from brings us to where we are today and gives us what we need for the future."
Dennis is also the supervisor of accounts in the city's Finance Department and has been a major organizer of city's Black History Month events for the past 10 years.
"When I was growing up we didn't learn about our history," she said. "I want our children to know about our ancestors and the contributions they made, not only to our society, but to civilization as a whole."
School visits
City Hall also hosted students from Hoboken High School, Demarest High School, and several other Hoboken public schools this past Friday in the city's Municipal Courtroom to perform an array of black spirituals and dance routines that reflect the influence African culture has had on American dance.
Also, the city's public library was slated to host a lecture on "African Influences in the Spanish Speaking Caribbean Culture" this Saturday, Feb. 3.
"Hoboken has always benefited from the mosaic of ethnicities in our city," said Mayor David Roberts last week. "It's important that we never forget the accomplishments made by the members of our African-American community and how it has made our city a better place to live."
Other events
On Saturday, Feb. 10, The Boys and Girls Club of Hudson County, located at 117 Jefferson St., and the City of Hoboken will be presenting the seventh annual Richard Hicks' Black Empowerment Luncheon.
The luncheon was named in honor of a celebrated member of the African-American community who lived in the Hoboken Housing Authority, where he was a guiding force for many of those who lived around him, particularly the younger residents.
The free event, which will be catered by the Gaslight Restaurant, will begin at 1 p.m. and include a mock talk-show in which public high school students explain what they've learned and what they want added to the city's Save the Youth Program, which was created by the city last year with a $197,446 state grant from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
The goal of the program is teaching teens about leadership while giving them the means by which to express their artistic side through music production and hip-hop dance.
According to the city's Director of Health and Human Services Carmelo Garcia, who will be hosting the event, there will be cameras and microphones along the panel and the show will be aired at a later date on the school's public access channel.
"I want kids to be stimulated. This panel discussion should make kids want to take a more active role in their community and in the programs we're offering to them," said Garcia. "By the end of this luncheon, they should be empowered to go out and make changes in their lives and the world around them. They should be infected with excitement."
Not all the presentations connected with Black History Month are taking place during the month of February. One of the most moving and thought-provoking events is the theatrical performance of the play "To Kenya with Love," which is being presented at City Hall inside the Municipal Courtroom on March 9 at 7 p.m. Admission is free of charge.
Written in 2005 by Jersey City resident Almarie Taylor, the play tells the story of a Kenyan mother who, after losing her husband to AIDS and promising her daughter that she would never leave her, discovers that she too has contracted the deadly disease.
For more information about the performance, call Dennis at (201) 420-2276.
Michael Mullins can be reached at mmulllins@hudsonreporter.com.
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