Celebrating unity by helping Sacramento Black families in need during Kwanzaa
The final day of Kwanzaa, which coincides with the first day of the New Year, is a day of giving.
For the fourth year, the Sacramento community advocacy group Safe Black Space will honor the tradition with its annual Kwanzaa Kutoa. The event — held 2-5 p.m. on Jan. 1, at Unity of Sacramento, 9249 Folsom Blvd. — is a celebration of family, food and culture in the spirit of Ubuntu.
“It’s a celebration — a feast, drumming, dancing. We invite the community at large,” said Sacramento psychologist and professor Kristee Haggins, president and a founding member of Safe Black Space.
Translated, Ubuntu means “I am because we are.” The word symbolizes the unity that underpins the seven days of Kwanzaa and is the driving force behind Safe Black Space.
Haggins sums up her organization’s work and impact: “We are each other’s medicine. We can help each other. This is the spirit in which we work.”
Haggins, and fellow founding members Sacramento pastor and theologian Joy Johnson and Rev. Kevin Kitrell Ross, started Safe Black Space in 2018 as a place for Black residents to process pain, grief and anger following the deadly shooting of Stephon Clark by police and growing racial tension.
Systemic racism, growing anti-Black sentiment and ongoing police violence against Black men and women only accelerated the need. Safe Black Space led monthly community “healing circles” to provide opportunities for Black people to talk through racial stress, anxiety and trauma.
“The roots of how we were born — we emerged after Stephon Clark. With my role as an African-centered psychologist, I took it upon myself to establish healing circles,” Haggins said. Safe Black Space “brought together faith leaders, health professionals, others to talk about healing Black people,” she said. “We were wanting to do what we could. We were first responders. We set out to heal the community.”
Aissata Morton, a Safe Black Space volunteer, came to the work naturally as a retired nurse and has taken on a variety of roles in the group. She has been instrumental in each of the last three Kutoa events and in the creation of the group’s “healing circles.”
“I wanted to be part of the healing community, (but) I got more back than I was giving. It was so rewarding to me. I thought I was going to be helping,” Morton said. “When we made this space, I didn’t recognize that need. Being in that circle, I recognized I was as much in need as everyone else.”
Supporting Sacramento families in need
A colleague was the brainchild behind Safe Black Space’s annual Kutoa celebrations, with its themes of uniting family and community, Haggins said.
Safe Black Space selects seven Sacramento-area Black families or individuals in need to support during the holidays. Nominees exemplify the spirit of Ubuntu or the Nguzo Saba, the seven principles of Kwanzaa: unity, self determination, collective work, cooperative economics, honoring African and African-American history and culture, creativity and faith. Families and individuals are nominated from across the community.
“What we decided to do — and continue to do for Black folks in the Sacramento region — is select one person or family who reflects one of the principles of Kwanzaa,” Haggins said. “We gift the honoree with gift cards, food baskets. We ask how many people are in the household; ask about their needs and wants.”
Among recent honorees were families in crisis and a neighborhood stalwart who had received long-due recognition for their work in the community.
Haggins told of one family navigating homelessness after losing their home to a fire. Another honoree was a single mother who escaped with her toddler from an abusive relationship.
“She said the Kutoa gave her a sense of community, of feeling safe, of having a vision of what’s possible,” Haggins said.
“Another was as Black community leader, an advocate. We honored that,” Haggins continued. “And he nominated someone else, so we see the ripple effect. We want to make this a real intentional effort.”
The event is one among a broad slate of gatherings across the Sacramento region to celebrate Kwanzaa, which is celebrated through Jan. 1.
“People of the African American community love who we are — it invites us to look at African values and see the full story of who we are,” Haggins said.
