The holiday season has arrived! Given the challenges associated with celebrating during the COVID-19 global pandemic, this year’s holiday season promises to be like nothing that we have experienced in the recent past. I am happy to know, however, that individuals and organizations near and far are planning virtual activities that promise to offer important reminders of the reasons for the Christmas (December 25, 2020) through Kwanzaa (December 26, 2020 – January 1, 2021) holiday season. I am including information below on two of my favorites. Peace, love, and joy! –Regennia
Regennia N. Williams, PhD (Photo by Nathaniel Rhodes)
CHRISTMAS AT ABYSSINIAN BAPTIST CHURCH
According to information, on the website for New York’s Abyssinian Baptist Church (f. 1808), “Jesus is the reason for the season.” For more information on the activities that this African American religious and cultural center has planned for December 2020, please click HERE.
KWANZAA: AN AFRICAN AMERICAN AND PAN-AFRICAN HOLIDAY
In 1966, Dr. Maulana Ron Karenga established Kwanzaa, a celebration of family, community, and culture. The holiday tradition that began in California with Dr. Karenga is now celebrated by African peoples all over the world. For more information on Kwanzaa, please visit the Official Kwanzaa Website HERE
About Dr. Regennia N. Williams, Founder, President, and Executive Director
Dr. Regennia N. Williams is the Founder and Executive Director of The RASHAD Center, Inc., a Maryland-based non-profit educational corporation.
Williams holds a PhD in Social History and Policy from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. A native Clevelander and a four-time alumna of Cleveland State University, information on RASHAD's “Praying Grounds, African American Faith Communities: A Documentary and Oral History” project is now available online at www.ClevelandMemory.org/pray/, a site that is maintained by CSU's Library Special Collections, home of the Praying Grounds manuscript collections. Praying Grounds was the primary inspiration for the launching of the Initiative for the Study of Religion and Spirituality in the History of Africa and the Diaspora (RASHAD) at CSU, and links to RASHAD's scholarly journal and newsletter are also available on the Praying Grounds site. On April 28, 2020, the RASHAD Center, Inc. became a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
In 2010, Dr. Williams was a Visiting Fulbright Scholar at Nigeria’s Obafemi Awolowo University, where she taught history and directed a RASHAD-related oral history project that focused on the role of religion in recent Nigerian social history. Other research-related travels have taken her to Canada, China, France, South Africa, and Austria.
In 2013, she conceived and produced “Come Sunday @ 70: The Place of Duke Ellington’s Sacred Jazz in World History and Culture, c. 1943-2013,” a project that included scholarly presentations and performing arts activities. From September 1993 until May 2015, she was a faculty member in the Department of History at Cleveland State University. She served as a Fulbright Specialist at South Africa's University of the Free State in the summer of 2019, and completed a short-term faculty residency at Howard University in the fall of 2019. She is based in Cleveland, Ohio.
As a public scholar, her current research projects focus on African American history and culture, especially as it relates to music, religion, and spirituality. She is a member of the Oral History Association, the Western Reserve Historical Society, and the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
The RASHAD Center, Inc. 