MANSFIELD — “God made us black. God don’t make mistakes either,” Columbus-based poet Is Said told the crowd Saturday at the Mansfield-Richland County Public Library.
Said’s group, Is Said & Advance Party, was one of the performers during a set that featured storytelling and poems accompanied by interpretive dance and West African drums.
“(That) was my favorite part,” said Nyasha Oden. “To see the dance come together with the music is beautiful. It was very lively, very entertaining, and it tells a story.”
Oden, who helped run the booth for the North End Community Improvement Collaborative, remembers attending the library’s event when she was a little girl.
“It impacted me in a positive way,” she said. “It’s important to know about your culture, where you come from … to see where we’ve been, what we’ve overcome and where we’re going. I don’t think it’s just about past history, it’s about the history we’re making now.”
“A lot of our history is hidden. A lot of children don’t know our history,” said Freda Abbot-Ayodele, the dancer for Is Said & Advanced Party.
Herma Barnette agreed, which is why she brought her 8-year-old granddaughter to the event.
“When they have things like this I like to bring her along,” Barnette said. “When I was in school back in the 60s, we didn’t have anything about black history.”
While Is Said & Advance Party celebrated traditional African culture, Spirit of Excellence mime troupe gave a moving performance about the struggles and triumphs of blacks in America.
“I really wanted to put in motion everything that has happened through the years,” said troupe member Amber Stanford. “Yes it was bad but we still push through it. It’s like the song says, ‘the war is not over, victory isn’t won,’ but we still fight on. We keep going.”
Other performances throughout the day included living history presenter Mary Church Terrell, James Williams and Co. and Alter Ego, Mansfield’s own R&B funk band.
The event also included a marketplace with booths for local businesses and non-profits.
Geron Tate, the president of Mansfield’s NAACP chapter, said his favorite part of the event was seeing the community come together and have a good time.
“You have older people, you have younger people, you have African Americans, you have caucasians,” he said. “We need more of these opportunities in the community.”
The Black History Celebration has been an annual library event since 1992, but this year the festivities will continue throughout February. Other events include performances by local bands S’yVelt and Another Element, historical re-enactments of women in history and a discussion by Scopas Poggo of the Ohio State University-Mansfield.
See mrcpl.org for more details.
