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Town to Host 3rd Annual Black History Month Celebration

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 6, 2012
MEDIA CONTACTS: Collin Nash & Sid Nathan | (516) 869-7794

Town to Host 3rd Annual Black History Month Celebration
 
North Hempstead, NY– Celebrating North Hempstead’s expanding cultural mosaic, Supervisor Jon Kaiman and the North Hempstead Town Board announced the third annual Black History Month presentation, a glimpse into the African experience from royalty in the homeland to slavery to noteworthy figures of the day.

The February 26th event at the recently-opened “Yes We Can” Community Center in Westbury is scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m.

“I take great pride in helping celebrate the contributions African Americans have made to North Hempstead’s storied history and to our country in general,” said Supervisor Kaiman. “This is just one of a number of Town-sponsored events celebrating North Hempstead’s growing ethnic and cultural diversity.”

This year’s event will feature music, dance and tributes to past and present African American notables from the community. It will also spotlight a timeline of events—from 1615 to present day—which definitively shaped African American history. One skit will depict the 1841 Supreme Court case in which former President John Quincy Adams (played by Supervisor Kaiman) argued the case for freeing 53 African slaves captured aboard the Amistad off of Long Island.

Participants in the reenactments will also include students from Carle Place High School, Westbury Schools, and Whispering Pines elementary school in Old Westbury. Music and dance will be provided by Drummers of the Diaspora and Sanaa Movement, a Westbury-based liturgical dance troupe.

One of the troupe’s principals is North Hempstead Town Councilwoman Viviana Russell, the first African American female to be elected to the Town Board.

“It’s important,” she said, “for everyone, not just people of African descent, to know about the contributions African Americans to just about every facet of the American fabric.”

For more information, please call 311.
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