2006 Black History Month
Story and photos by George Liles

A rocking Harambee capped off the 2006 Woods Hole Black History Month celebrations. Traditionally held the last Thursday of February in the MBL Swope Center, the Harambee (Swahili for "Coming Together") is an ethnic pot luck feast with music, crafts, and entertainment.

The 2006 Harambee featured drumming, singing, and dancing with a quartet led by Samba Cisse. A musician from Senegal, West Africa, Cisse is artistic director of the Boston-based Silimbo D'Adeane Dance and Drum Company.

Cisse was joined on drums by his brother Nko. His mother, Fatou N'Diaye, and his sister Maimouna, danced and sang in Wolof and Mandingo. The musicians had the Swope Center hopping as the crowd joined Fatou and Maimouna dancing to the West African music.

Led by the NEFSC's Nancy Munroe, volunteers from the Center and other local science institutions ran the Swope kitchen and food line, feeding more than 200 revelers. Woods Hole and Falmouth merchants contributed to the feast: Captain Kidd Restaurant, The Nimrod, Pie in the Sky Café, Iriecorna Jamaican Restaurant, and Sodexho Marriott Services.

Ramona Peters and Paula Peters, members of the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe, provided story-telling and crafts. The upstairs Swope Lobby featured displays of Afrocentric handicrafts (Wright Creations) and books and merchandise from Zizini East African Arts & Crafts. Krystin St. Onge hosted an AIDS awareness display. She is the Mid/Upper Cape client services director for the AIDS Support Group of Cape Cod. George Spivey, equity and affirmative action officer for the Town of Falmouth and Falmouth Public Schools, hosted a "No Place for Hate" display.

Vasco R. A. Pires, a Falmouth artist and author, presented a photo slide show of his recent trip to the Republic of Cape Verde, and signed copies of his most recent book of poetry, "A Fraction of Me: Prose and Poetry for the New Century." Pires is currently working on a book and video on Cape Verde.

The Woods Hole Black History Month Celebration has been held annually since 1979. The celebration is organized by a multi-institutional planning committee that is currently chaired by the NEFSC's Dr. Ambrose Jearld.

The 2006 observances also included:

• February 9 - Robert V. Ward, Jr., Dean, Southern New England School of Law, discussed the relationship between the law and race relations in America since the founding of our nation.
• February 13 - The Rev. Canon Cecil A. Scantlebury, retired Episcopal priest, gave a presentation in celebration of the life of Absalom Jones, the first Black priest in the Episcopal Church, whose birthday is observed on February 13. The title of his talk, "The African Presence in The Church and Society".
• February 17 - Robert L. Harris, Jr., Professor of African-American History and Vice Provost for Diversity & Faculty Development at Cornell University, spoke on celebrating community: Black fraternal, social and civic institutions at the beginning of the 21st century.

Posted March 20, 2006