NJPAC Celebrates 50 YEARS OF KWANZAA

Share in the 50th annual celebration of Kwanzaa! at NJPAC beginning Thursday, December 15th until Sunday, December 18th. NJPAC's Prudential Hall Lobby will be transformed into a Kwanzaa Artisan Marketplace where vendors display creative, unique and one of kind items for everyone's gift-giving needs.

Then on Saturday, December 17th families and children of all ages are invited to a FREE Kwanzaa Children's Festival taking place from 12 Noon until 5pm where kids of all ages experience hands-on activities that share and educate the true meaning of Kwanzaa. This event takes place at NJPAC's Center for Arts Education located on the NJPAC campus at 24 Rector Street.

Also on Saturday, December 17th, NJPAC presents Forces of Nature Dance Theater with special guest Les Nubians with two special performances at 2pm and at 8pm. The 2pm Forces of Nature Dance performance will begin with A Tribute To The Elders, honoring elders in the community who are making a difference. Those three people are William D. Payne, Assemblyman Payne is a member of the NJ Assembly, 29th district since has served on the New Jersey Criminal Disposition Commission since 2004. Joan Whitlow who was the first black woman hired as a full-time reporter at The Star-Ledger, New Jersey's largest newspaper and presently serving as acting chairperson of, the Newark NAACP's Afro-Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics (ACTSO) is a competition for students in the ninth through 12th grades and Katunge "Mama" Mimy who is an educator, counselor, performer of African folklore and dance, and consultant in African American history. Ticket for these performances are available at NJPAC.org

2016 marks 50 years of Kwanzaa. Kwanzaa starts on December 26 and lasts for seven days, one for each of the Nguzo Saba ("seven principles" in Swahili). Kwanzaa is a celebration of community, family and culture.

Kwanzaa Artisan Marketplace
Thursday, Dec 15th - Saturday, Dec 17th
The holidays are coming! Take care of all of your gift-giving needs when NJPAC's Prudential Hall Lobby is transformed into a community marketplace.

FREE Kwanzaa Children's Festival
Saturday, Dec 17th at 12 Noon - 5pm
NJPAC Center for Arts Education
24 Rector Street, Newark

Enjoy hands-on activities that share and educate all about the true meaning of Kwanzaa. No charge for admission! Children of all ages will learn West African Dance, Afro Cuban Drumming, many arts and craft activities include mask making and rain sticks. There will also be a face painter on-hand. This event is for families. All ages are welcomed!

Forces of Nature Dance Theatre with special guest Les Nubians
Saturday, December 17 at 2pm and 8pm, Victoria Theater.

Celebrating its 35th anniversary, the daringly theatrical Forces of Nature Dance Theatre leads Kwanzaa festivities with special guest Les Nubians, an Afro-French jazz vocal duo. The 2pm performance will include A Tribute To The Elders, Celebrating: William D. Payne, Joan Whitlow and Katunge "Mama" Mimy.

Forces of Nature combine elements of modern dance, West African movement, ballet, hip-hop, and even martial arts. Visually inventive and creatively brilliant, these multi-ethnic dancers and drummers perform one-of-a-kind programs that are "sizzling ... nothing short of sensational," says The Washington Post.

About William D. Payne
Assemblyman Payne is a member of the NJ Assembly, 29th district since has served on the New Jersey Criminal Disposition Commission since 2004. Since 2003, he has been the President of the Board of Trustees of the Chad Independent School.
Payne has served on the New Jersey Joint Committee on Mentoring since 1999. He served on the New Jersey Tourism Advisory Council in 1998, on the New Jersey Congressional Award Council in 1995 and on the New Jersey Council on Adult Literacy in 1992. He served as Chair of the Newark Housing Authority from 1986-1989 and was Vice-Chair of the Essex County Improvement Authority from 1980-1986.

About Joan Whitlow:
Ms. Whitlow has been a mentor for, and currently serving as acting chairperson of, the Newark NAACP's Afro-Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics (ACTSO) which is a competition for students in the ninth through 12th grades. As the humanities mentor for Newark ACTSO, Ms. Whitlow advises students competing in the, essay, poetry, and short story, playwriting, and music composition categories. Newark ACTSO participants have consistently won medals at the state and national ACTSO competitions. Prior to that Ms. Whitlow was the first black woman hired as a full-time reporter by The Star-Ledger, New Jersey's largest newspaper. She began her career at the Ledger in 1970, starting as a general assignment reporter. She went on to become the paper's medical editor, and a member of their editorial board and an opinion columnist.

About Katunge Mimy (Mama Katunge): educator, counselor, performer of African folklore and dance, and consultant in African American history and culture. Dedicated to the positive acknowledgement of the 'Black' diaspora and the search for African cultural expressions, which she can share with her community, Mama Katunge has served as an ambassador for positive values and images. She is a graduate of Kean University and holds a Master's degree in education from Seton Hall University. She as well, taught at Seton Hall University and many public and private schools in New Jersey. She served as the Executive Director of The New - Ark School, an independent school and cultural center in Newark New Jersey, before returning to teaching and counseling. Her performances (which often include her two children) are appreciated by children and adult audiences and have delighted both, but, as Ms. Mimy states, they have most of all, "informed and transformed." "Nothing is more important to me than correcting the commonly accepted negative images associated with my people and their cultures." Serving as an educational consultant, sister Katunge, as she prefers to be called, is now pursuing her personal interest in African spirituality and culture. For the past ten years she has made one of her personal missions that of assisting in the Education of children in West Africa. The Gambia West Africa has become her second home. Most known and respected for her presentations of Kwanzaa and libation ceremonies, Mama Katunge also connected the history of culture with the presentation of the Ancestral Alter at the Dance Africa Brooklyn Academy Of Music festival for years.

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