A time of celebration, reflection

BANGOR – Some came to Sunday’s Kwanzaa celebration out of curiosity about the holiday. Carol Shoreborn of Dexter came for personal reasons: the love of her granddaughter.

Shoreborn’s daughter Amani died seven years ago in a car accident, leaving behind a young, biracial daughter, Derian, who now lives with Shoreborn. The girl’s father, who is black, lives in Maryland, and even though they stay in touch, Shoreborn said her granddaughter still needs more.

“There aren’t many opportunities to expose her to African-American culture,” said Shoreborn, who is white, after the more than two-hour celebration at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Bangor.

The celebration was held in advance of the official start of Kwanzaa, a weeklong holiday based on African festivals that is sandwiched between Christmas and New Year’s Day.

That access to black culture is limited in Maine is a fact all too well known to James Varner, president of the Greater Bangor Area NAACP, who on Sunday described Maine as the “whitest state in the union.”

Less than 2 percent of the state’s population is listed as black, Hispanic or other, Varner said, adding that just because Maine is nearly homogeneously white doesn’t mean racism doesn’t exist here. It does, he said.

Still there was conciliation in his voice as he talked to the audience of 80 people that included many ethnic heritages, among them blacks, Hispanics, whites and Asians.

And although Kwanzaa was established in the late 1960s as a way of promoting a stronger culture for Americans of African descent, it is also about bringing people together, Varner said.

“I am going to reach out and ask you to take my hand and hold it and work with me and recognize that there is work to be done,” Varner said.

“Kwanzaa” is Swahili and refers to the harvest of the “first fruits” and crops in Africa. It is meant as a time of celebration and reflection on the hard work and struggles of black people, according to Varner.

Sunday’s celebration at the Bangor church offered the tastes and sounds of black heritage, from an old peach cobbler recipe and black-eyed peas to some songs from African tribes to the rueful tones of songs that came out of slavery in this country.

And in a ceremony in the center of the room, seven candles were lighted representing the seven principles of Kwanzaa: unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity and faith. For many those are universal guiding principles.

“If everyone studied this in the country and in the world and really brought it to the forefront of their lives, it would be a much better world,” said Linda Smith Koehler, director of the Women With Wings, who performed at the Kwanzaa celebration. Their songs called for unity, love, sharing and breaking down barriers that separate people.

For Shoreborn, the night offered her another chance to learn about her granddaughter’s culture and further the connection with Derian’s father, who lives out of state.

“Unity is really important,” said Shoreborn, whose daughter Amani was born in 1974 amid the turmoil of the Vietnam War.

“Amani” is the Swahili word for peace.