In order to kick-off Black History Month, the Caribbean Canadian Association of Waterloo Region (CCAWR) will be hosting the Black History Month 2021 virtual launch event, on Jan. 30 and Jan. 31.
“The idea for the launch event is just to kick off all the Black History Month activities and events that are happening in the region of Waterloo,” Lannois Carroll-Woolery, president of the CCAWR said.
The theme of the event this year is “celebrate, educate, advocate.”
Carroll-Woolery said that last year’s Black History month launch was a one-day event.
“After the Black History Month event of last year … we started to think about what Black History Month could look like in 2021. We recognized that we had to do something differently, we had to do something more. So, when we put our heads together again and we said, ‘This event is going to be so meaningful, we want it to be very impactful,” Carroll-Woolery said.
“It’s going to be the first Black History Month after all the difficulties of 2020, so we decided to change it from a one-day event to a two-day event.”
Day one of the launch event will feature celebratory performances and speeches, while day two will feature presentations, workshops and resources for various things, such as mental and physical health, financial literacy, legal support, entrepreneurship and education.
“We still want to have performances, singing, dancing, musical elements greetings and speeches, but we realized that the Black community needed something more, something extra and so we added an advocacy piece to it,” Carroll-Woolery said.
Carroll-Woolery said all are welcome to join in on the celebration.
The Black History Month launch event will be available via FaceBook or YouTube.
Alyssa Di Sabatino
Alyssa is the Editor-in-Chief of The Cord. She is finishing up her final semester in Laurier’s Faculty of Arts, as an English major and Global Studies minor. Alyssa likes pants more than shirts and thinks everyone looks good with a nose piercing.