Delaware County Black Caucus celebrates Black History Month with all-day festival

Poets, spoken word artists, reggae, jazz and R&B musicians, 15 vendors, entrepreneurs — even a traditional Yoruba Egungun ceremony — were part of the Delaware County Black Caucus’ Black History Month Festival and Bazaar.

Held Saturday at the studios of Nu Millennium Media & Productions in Collingdale, the all-day festival was part celebration and part community builder. Organizers plan to make it an annual event.

“We’re here to celebrate Black folk, Black culture, community and businesses in Delaware County,” Maleata Ragin, event co-chair of the Delaware County Black Caucus, said. “A lot of things happen in Philly but there’s never anything big in Delco so we wanted to do something for people in the county so they can go a few minutes away from home and connect with people in their community.”

Darlene Hill, caucus treasurer, explained that they hope the event grows to the size of the Philadelphia Odunde festival.

Ragin agreed that the intent is to expand and have the festival and bazaar grow each year.

Both she and Rashid Duggan, owner of Nu Millennium studios, spoke about the importance of having people spend time with each other.

“We wanted to provide a day where people can really come out, be together and celebrate from all walks of life, all races, all colors. You don’t have to be Black to be here,” Ragin said.

Duggan added, “We don’t have a big conscious Afro-centric community out here in Delaware County as opposed to Philadelphia and other areas. We really need to insert that into the mix.”

He hoped the day provided good vibes and good energy for all who attended.

“We can come together,” Duggan said. “We’re not alone. We have each other.”

One of the highlights of the day was a traditional Yoruba Egugun ceremony opening the festival.

“No matter where you’re from, you have an ancestor,” Ragin said. “You have a mother, a grandmother, great-grandmother. Just remember to celebrate the people who came before us. That’s a really big thing when it comes to Black culture: celebrating the folks who came before us.”

Ifalana Tami Williams of the Ile Igoke Yoruba Temple of Spiritual Growth and Cultural Center in Wilmington, Del., poured libations at the start of the ceremony, in which audience members were invited to recall those loved ones who had passed.

Williams, who is also owner of the natural health and wellness boutique Karite Naturals in the Springfield Mall, explained that the Egungun is the masquerade representing the ancestors.

“We bring them out,” she said. “We come out and we will sing the traditional Yoruba songs … It’s actually a very spiritual event, normally done in West Africa.”

Williams shared the significance of the ceremony.

“To know that you have ancestors,” she said. “People are gone from the physical world but they’re with you in spirit and that you still need to honor them, you still need to elevate them. They’re with you every day.”

Whether a song on the radio that reminds you of someone or a smell or another sign, the ancestors let you know of their presence, she said.

“The ancestors let us know that they are with us,” Williams said. “They never leave. They are always with you.”

She shared why she wanted to be a part of Saturday’s event.

“Our ancestors sacrificed so much for us and the lives that we have today,” Williams said. “If we don’t share their stories and tell our kids and our kids’ kids who they are, they’re forgotten … There’s a lot going on in the country right now and we’re being forgotten. We have to remember if we don’t remember our ancestors, who’s going to?

Another part of the day included the vendor market featuring Black entrepreneurs.

Dr. Naomi Pereira-Lane, owner of Changing Lanes Learning Center in Collingdale, was featuring books she had authored, including one co-written with her son, Justin.

“It’s about a car who takes a journey but it’s paralleled to kids who come to me who are transformed,” she said of “J.T. Hopper.”

She also featured a journal of her life experiences, including surviving through the pandemic and a nearby explosion.

Her learning center, catered to 3- to 5-year-old’s, has been open for 15 years and features reading, math and STEM.

“I am all-inclusive,” Pereira-Lane said. “I look at how a child comes to me and how we set goals as a family to get them to where they need to be and that we can persevere no matter what the circumstances are.”

Nearby, Shari Williams, aka “the Goddess of Drones,” was at the festival to try to build a drone soccer league in Delaware County.

“Drone soccer is a STEM and aviation program that allows our youth to build a drone, program a drone, fly a drone and then compete with the drone through drone soccer tournaments,” she said.

She explained that kids can start flying them at 12 years old and the programs go up to the collegiate level, as they compete regionally and nationally.

Williams is putting together summer programs and also does career days as well drone piloting programs to pass the FAA exam.

A founding member of the Delaware County Black Caucus, state Sen. Anthony H. Williams, D-8, of Philadelphia and Delaware counties, was pleased to see the engaged involvement of youth.

“To see that it has grown with a younger generation, that they’ve matured and have their own vision, that’s exciting,” he said, noting that the festival and bazaar’s realization was a personal and county accomplishment.