To close out 2025, Brooklyn is celebrating Kwanzaa (December 26 to January 1) with festivities ranging from events for families and children to a restaurant and club tour for adults. Each event will have a traditional Kwanzaa celebration of African and African American heritage and culture with observing principles through candle lighting and communal gatherings–(Unity), Kujichagulia (Self-Determination), Ujima (Collective Work & Responsibility), Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics), Nia (Purpose), Kuumba (Creativity), and Imani (Faith).
“Kwanzaa has become a tradition. People who adopted it, adopted it not just temporarily. They adopted it for what it meant, what it had the potential to mean. They started including it in their year end celebrations. It became very important. I think it is,” Brooklyn-based Black history and culinary historian Jessica Harris, told Our Time Press. She is the creator of Netflix’s High on the Hog and author of the recently re-issued A Kwanzaa Keepsake: Celebrating the Holiday with New Traditions and Feasts. “The importance of Kwanzaa for me personally is teaching youngsters and sharing values and history and tradition with a younger generation.”
Kofi Osei Williams, Executive Director, Asase Yaa Cultural Arts Foundation, has been celebrating Kwanzaa his entire life. “My father Kweku Ofori Payton worked with the Kwanzaa Collective since before I was born so I was among a cultural community that celebrated Kwanzaa together not just a household,” he told Our Time Press.“One of the beautiful lessons I learned from that is the principles of Kwanzaa should be a cultural aspect of all people. With some of the inequities in the Black Family, Kwanzaa helps us to stay focus and understand our true mission.”
For the seventh year, Asase Yaa Cultural Arts Foundation has partnered with Brooklyn Children’s Museum to celebrate Kwanzaa. This is BCM’s 18th Annual Kwanzaa Festival being held from December 26 to 30. The festival is considered the largest and longest Kwanzaa Festival in New York City. The five day event features Afrobeat, Dancehall and Soca dance workshops, Djembe (West African hand drum) drumming Workshop, stilt walker and youth dance performances, herbal sensory exploration with Brooklyn Supported Agriculture Community and traditional candle lighting ceremonies and Kwanzaa sing-alongs.
“This year we will have amazing performances by Asase Yaa Youth Ensemble in conjunction with Moko Jambe Stilt walkers. We will have our youth teaching the youth in true Nguzo Saba fashion of Unity, Purpose, Creativity and so much more,” said Williams. “We will have a space that people of all faiths and backgrounds can join together and celebrate the spirit of the Nguzo Saba in a fun, uplifting, and unified space.”
A Children’s Kwanzaa Village will take place at the Brownsville Heritage House on Saturday, December 27 from 11:00 am – 1:00 pm. It’s a day filled with joy and celebration. African heritage and culture will be honored through various activities and performances. This event is a great opportunity for children to learn about the principles of Kwanzaa in a fun and interactive way. Brownsville Heritage House is located at 581 Mother Gaston Blvd on 2nd Floor.
Brooklyn Ethical will celebrate the principle of Ujima, collective work and responsibility, on Sunday December 28 at 12:30pm with a traditional Kwanzaa feast. It’s a special Kwanzaa presentation with speaker artist and historian Dr Myrah Brown Green. “It’s an actual Kwanzaa celebration. The kinaras and candles on the table with fruit, vegetables and the salt. Dr. Brown is going to speak on our creative journey while traveling the seven days of Kwanzaa,” said DuPree, Music Director of Brooklyn Ethical. “Kwanzaa is a cultural holiday. It’s not a religious holiday and everybody can come and participate.” The event is catered and is also available on Zoom viarsvp@bsec.org. Brooklyn Ethical is located at 269 4th Street at Garfield Place.
On the first day of Kwanzaa, Friday, December 26, the Kwanzaa Crawl is touring through 17 Black-owned restaurants and pubs in Brooklyn. The one-night event was founded by Krystal Payne and Kerry Coddett, two sisters who grew up in East Flatbush, Kwanzaa Crawl is a party with a purpose. It brings people of the African diaspora together to support Black-owned businesses in their communities. Now in its 9th annual year, over 23,000 crawlers have attended.
Both entrepreneurial sisters have used their extensive entertainment credentials as producers and performers to develop and grow Kwanzaa Crawl. “We thought about all the Kwanzaa principles and we realized they were amazing and should be celebrated,” Payne told Our Time Press. “And we would do it in our own way to make it fun and exciting and bring as many people together as a collective to celebrated. My sister and I are foodies. We eat out a lot. So, we were familiar with a lot of Black-owned businesses. We were thinking about Kwanzaa and cooperative economics. Why not do something where we can get a lot of people together in unity to support these establishments.”
The Kwanzaa Crawl evening kicks off with a traditional Kwanzaa ceremony. The Kwanzaa Crawl is coordinated in tour teams which travel to the restaurant and pubs for cuisine samplings. This gives attendees an experience with Brooklyn’s Black restaurant scene.
The sisters celebrate Kwanzaa as a family on last day of Kwanzaa. “Aside from the Kwanzaa Crawl, we have our own ceremony that we do as a family on the last day. We light the candles and we talk about each principle.
We talk about how we embody the principles the prior year and how we want to continue embodying the principles in the year to come,” said Payne. “We also talk about things that we don’t want to bring into the new year. Whether they are habits or thoughts. Things that don’t serve us. We are intentional about not carrying that with us in the new year. To carry things that serve us. Whether its habits, mindsets or practices.”
For more information on Kwanzaa Crawl, visit www.kwanzaacrawl.com
