Spring 2021

Join us on this amazing 6-week journey of discovering language and joy of learning KiSwahili.

Our goal is to introduce the language, teach basic conversational skills, and share broader information on the history, culture, and heritage of East Africa.

Participants will master, the alphabet, basic greetings, basic numbering, and simple icebreaker conversations but the focus will be on a broadening experience rather than a deep dive into the language itself.

As the English language takes center stage as the global language for business, innovation, science, and academia, indigenous languages rich in ancient wisdom, culture, and history are often relegated to the background. Language is not only made up of mere words. It is cultural beliefs, traditions, ways of being, thinking, indigenous wisdom, and ideological beliefs and nuances. It guides and influences the way we move through the world.

This lecture will draw the participants into an awareness that the English language is colonized. If this holds true, then the onus lies on us to decolonize language contextually and in the ways in which we express ourselves. Mother tongues are going extinct and we are sadly losing the words, wisdom, cultural context and meaning. There has to be an urgency to preserve them. What are the ways in which we can advocate, revitalize and promote mother tongues and indigenous languages

Black Joy Abound, we are taking the time to experience Life, Love & Liberation with our virtual day party on Feb 8, 2021.

Featuring DJ Stylistic & DJ Cleopatra

This virtual event takes walking to the beat of your own drum to the next level. Through this interactive workshop world class percussionist, Clint Breeze takes us back to the days of pencil beats on lunch tables through some advanced rhythms on the djembe and drum kit.

Lap djembes are available for checkout at the BCC while supplies last (comes with disinfectant wipes)

Not required for the workshop but they will be fun to use if you choose.

As we center on the theme of Love, Languages & Liberation, the illustrious poet Manon Voice will discuss the power of having a Love Ethic as described by bell hooks. Copies of All About Love:New Visions by bell hooks are available for check out at the Purdue Black Cultural Center Library while supplies last

We will be visiting with friends and neighbors to learn more about the Gullah Geechee people. The Gullah live in the Lowcountry region of the U.S. states of Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina, in both the coastal plain and the Sea Islands. They developed a creole language, also called Gullah, and a culture with some African influence. Join us for a week of celebrating their way of life.

Our Performing Arts Ensembles will be showcasing a special virtual performance highlighting the theme of Love, Languages, & Liberation

Stay Tuned for More information!