The Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute’s Sou Sou! Saturdays program is back this fall as we prepare for the holiday season that rolls in with the month of November.

It is the time of year when we see homes, stores, and schools decorated with pumpkins, corn, and gourds against the backdrop of colorful leaves. It’s the time of year when children’s crafts boil down to creating paper cutouts of turkeys wearing pilgrim hats and buckled shoes. A time when children are told stories of colonists arriving on the Mayflower while being led to engage in “gobble-gobble” dances.

The Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute’s November Sou Sou! Saturdays event, fit for families of all ages, will honor this season by paying homage to our African and Indigenous traditions. It will plant seeds of wisdom by sharing oral history through storytelling that will focus on Afro-Caribbean heritage. It will cultivate our community’s relationship with music and nature by honoring the gourd and its multifaceted use not just as food or decoration but as a musical instrument that has been used for centuries throughout the African Diaspora and Indigenous cultures of the Americas. And it will encourage growth through movement by uniting storytelling, percussion, and community during a drum and dance workshop.

On November 5, 2022, join CCCADI in harvesting the cultural unity that we have planted, cultivated, and grown together, that which keeps us connected to one another, to our heritage, and to our ancestors.

Workshops & Collaborators:

Planting Seeds of Wisdom: Oral Traditions with Malika Lee Whitney, Kevin Nathaniel, & Sharon Gordon

This storytelling workshop will pay tribute to the Hon. Louise Bennett-Coverley of Jamaica, fondly remembered as “Miss Lou.” Her cultural gifts as a folklorist, storyteller, dramatist, poet, radio, TV host, and social commentator offer an incredibly rich and lasting contribution to our Afro-Caribbean legacy. Miss Lou believed  “that ‘de pickney-dem learn de sinting dat belong to dem’ (that the children learn about their heritage). The harvest time theme offers insightful connections relating to Afro-Caribbean foodways, gathering of community, traditions practiced to preserve land, planting, reaping, and remedies for sustenance. The program will motivate and engage active audience participation through call and response, music and movement.

Cultivating Rhythm: Shekere Making with Fatima Logan-Alston

Enjoy this guided experience in handcrafting a shekere, a percussion instrument common throughout West Africa and Latin America. The shekere is made from a hollowed gourd and covered with a bead-threaded skirt. This workshop will provide a basic template for creating a shekere and will offer the opportunity for improvisation. Participants will be able to tap into their creativity and custom-decorate their own instrument.

Growin’, Groovin’ & Movin’ in Community: Drum & Dance with Kimani Fowlin & Okai Fleurimont

This workshop is an opportunity to connect, unite, and transform energy and relationships through the power of song, dance, and rhythm. We will take a journey into the African Diaspora, exploring the history and power of the drum and dance as a form of communication, an act of resistance, and an outlet of joy. Together, participants will create a village of powerful drumming and embodied gratitude.

Inspired by the financial resource-sharing traditions known throughout the African Diaspora by such names as “Colecta,” “Box Hand,” “San,” “Partna,” or “Sou-Sou”, this family-based art and education program reinterprets Sou Sou as an exchange of cultural resources.

Let’s celebrate and honor our connections by upholding our traditions of collective growth, mindfulness, celebration, and creativity.

Please help us to plan properly by registering in advance. Registration does not guarantee entry. Admittance is on a first-come, first-serve basis.

There is limited capacity for this event. Allow ample time for check-in, which will begin at 12:30 PM. Children must be accompanied by adults at all times.

Please note: All visitors above two years old will be required to wear a mask at all times.

All events are subject to change.