Welcome to the Web page of Kuumba Events and Communications. This page serves as a jumping-off point for several initiatives that have worked to bring positive change to our community over the past twenty years. The concept of Kuumba comes from the Kiswahili language and is inspired by the Afrikan-American Kwanzaa celebration invented by Dr. Maulana Karenga in the 1960’s. Kuumba is the principle of Creativity, “To do what we can, in the way that we can, to leave our world more beautiful and beneficial than we found it.”
Kuumba Events and Communications is comprised of the following divisions:
KUUMBAEvents: an event-planning group which occasionally sponsors community meetings, parties and cultural events.
KUUMBAMUSIC: a disc jockey and live sound-reinforcement company that concentrates on music from the Afrikan American tradition. Our motto is “Exploring the Spectrum in Black Music from Afrika, the Americas and the Diaspora”. KUUMBAMUSIC is available to help plan and perform at parties, receptions, lectures and cultural events. More information can be found on the Music page.
KUUMBAReport Online: our initial foray into the “communications” aspects of our company name, KUUMBAReport Newsletter was published as a small, hard-copy community paper in the Baltimore-Washington, DC area from 1997 to 2011. Over 44 issues, we examined issues such as Pan-Afrikan organizing, political prisoners, police misconduct, political corruption, Afrikan issues, global war, historical issues that are little-known or poorly-understood, and activists who are working to heal the suffering and divisions within and between our communities. After the newsletter ceased publication in 2011 due to financial concerns, the Web site https://kuumbareport.com was launched a few years later. On that site, most of the original issues of KUUMBAReport can be found in PDF format, and regular blog posts discuss many of the issues of the day as they impact on the Afrikan, Afrikan-American and global communities.
WorldHouse Music and Sound: a subsidiary of KUUMBAMUSIC which concentrates on music from around the world. This was inspired by our discovery of the beauty that exists in music from Afrika, South America, the Caribbean, Asia and Europe. Much of the music here is also available through KUUMBAMUSIC.
What’s New
The Ancestors’ Call: Musician, Producer, Composer and Cultural Impresario Quincy Jones
Long before I embarked on a long and often frustrating part-time career as a mobile and club DJ, the music of Quincy Jones was a large part of my life, even if I didn’t realize it at first. Many of us were unaware of his influence on the sounds we heard as young people, from the soundtracks to Sanford & Son and Ironside to the Roots miniseries. We all knew about his genius in helming our introduction to The Brothers Johnson (Look Out for #1, Right On Time), the breakout albums Off The Wall (1979), Thriller (1982) and Bad (1987) for Michael Jackson and the We Are The World collaboration that spawned a number of similar collaborative efforts from R&B, Hip Hop, Pop and even Country artists, but fewer of us knew about his work with artists like Frank Sinatra, Sarah Vaughan and Dinah Washington. More of us got to know his music from his own releases such as Sounds and Stuff Like That, The Dude and Back On The Block, but he already had a massive discography by then, even of his “solo” albums.
Quincy Delight Jones Jr. (March 14, 1933 – November 3, 2024) joined the Honored Ancestors at the age of 91. Those of us who grew up on his music will remember him as “The Dude”, from his 1981 album of the same name.
No tribute I could write would do justice to the mountain of work he produced, and it would probably take far too long to compose such a tribute. I will settle, at this time, for a list of some of his accomplishments, along with the links to more information. For a bit more, and a few links to other sources of information on his incredible life and career, click here.
“The REvolution Is Black Love” at the November 2 BlackMen Unifying BlackMen Awards Breakfast
This week’s edition of “The REvolution Is Black Love” comes from the Black Men Unifying Black Men 4th Annual Black Men’s Honors Breakfast Event, held on Saturday, November 2 at the Prince Hall Grand Lodge on Eutaw Place in Baltimore City. Show host Sis. Tomiko interviewed several award recipients at the event.
To watch the video, click the link below:
To read more and to listen to the audio, click here:
“The REvolution Is Black Love” is broadcast every Wednesday ay 3:00 PM Eastern Time (United States) on HANDRadio (https://handradio.org). After the broadcast, the show can be listened to below and on the Media Pages of KUUMBAReport Online (https://kuumbareport.com) and the Web site of the Sixth Region Diaspora Caucus (https://srdcinternational.org).
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The R-Evolution is Black Love
Wednesdays @3pm EST.
https://handradio.org/
https://kuumbareport.com/
https://webuyblack.com
https://kweli.tv
“The seed you plant in love, not matter how small, will grow into a mighty tree of refuge” Afeni Shakur
“I believe in the sweat of love and in the fire of truth” Assata Shakur
The Maisha Washington Education Foundation Scholarship Fund
Sehwah-Liberia, Inc. and the Sixth Region Diaspora Caucus (SRDC) are announcing the Maisha Washington Education Foundation Scholarship for high school students in Liberia.
The Scholarship Program represents part of SRDC’s continuing efforts to build bridges between the Pan-African Diaspora and the African Community on the Continent, and Sehwah-Liberia’s continuing commitment to lift up the people of Liberia as the country continues to rise up from decades of civil war.
The Scholarship Program is named after Mama Maisha Washington, who as a member of the Maryland SRDC Organization and the Maryland Council of Elders (MCOE) had led efforts to launch a successful 2020 Pan African Summer Camp in Liberia, administered and taught by teachers in Liberia and the United States. Mama Maisha was also one of the leaders of the Pan-African Library Project, which will build the first-ever public library in Monrovia, Liberia, and which will primarily serve the countries of Liberia, Guinea-Conakry, Siera Leone and Cote D’Ivoire.
Mama Maisha transitioned to the Honored Ancestors in October 2020.
The initial goal of the Maisha Washington Education Foundation Scholarship is to grant educational scholarships to 150 high school students (9th, 10th, 11th and 12th graders) in Liberia during 2022, and to expand the Scholarship Program from there. Also, in support of the Pan-African Library Project, Liberian college-age students will be trained in Library Science to equip them to manage and operate the library once it is completed.
Another objective of the Scholarship Program will be to build relationships between Scholarship donors and students in Liberia who will benefit from the Scholarship Program. SRDC has included a Scholarship Program Donor Form, which can be completed by checking out the SRDC post at https://srdcinternational.org/maisha-washington-education-foundation-scholarship-fund/ or by visiting the Maisha Washington Education Foundation Web page at https://srdcinternational.org/scholarship/.
To make a tax-deductible donation to the Maisha Washington Education Foundation Scholarship Program using PayPal, please visit the SRDC post at https://srdcinternational.org/maisha-washington-education-foundation-scholarship-fund/ or the Maisha Washington Education Foundation Web page at https://srdcinternational.org/scholarship/.
For more information and updates, check out our post or the Web site https://srdcinternational.org/scholarship/.