ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
February is nearly around the corner, which means communities throughout the U.S. will be commemorating Black History Month, including Liberal.
This year’s Liberal festivities will start with a community church service, which will be at 3:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 1, at New Community Missionary Baptist Church at 521 N. Nebraska Ave., and then the Taste Festival will be at 3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 15 at the Liberal Senior Center at 701 N. Grant Ave. Next will be the Rosa Parks Scholarship Banquet, which will be at 5 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 21 at Seward County Community College, and the month events will conclude with the Gospel Song Festival, which will be at 3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 22 at Bibleway Church of God In Christ at 410 E. Eighth Street.
“I'm really excited about the community church service, we actually sent letters and notes and to as many churches as we could get information for to come together that Sunday. And I think that would be a wonderful, wonderful thing to do to encourage unity and help everyone get together and worship and praise,” Black History Committee member Christine Hammond said. “I think that's a wonderful to start our February off. We've never done that before. The second Sunday, Feb. 8, we are trying to work with some young people to get them to put together a youth Sunday, and we can't say too much about that since some of those plans are still being discussed. With our gospel song fest, we've started practice, and we've invited a lot of people to come and join us. I always enjoy that because it's fun, and we have people who come and sing who we have no clue can sing, but then they start singing, and it's wonderful. With the Rosa Parks Banquet, we have tickets for that already, and for anyone who wants to get a ticket, they can call myself, Floyd Coleman, or Kiffiany Stevenson, and they can send us a message on Facebook to let us know. At the banquet, we're going to have a guest speaker, Sandra Porter, who's a pretty dynamic speaker, and she has a lot to present to the city. She's really excited about coming to Liberal and I think she'll do a great job.”
Hammond and fellow committee member Floyd Coleman said it was easy to include a church service to help kick off the month.
“We meet up every week, and someone in the group came up with the idea. We just pitched in and got it to where we want it now. We used to have the fashion and talent show, but it became kind of hard to organize,” Coleman said.
“And it just seems like the time to do it, because we felt like we needed something to bring everyone together and it just seemed like it would be a nice thing and good thing to do,” Hammond said.
Coleman and Hammond said they also hope to see a lot of participation at the Taste Festival.
“I would love to see more dishes from just different countries. We want them to feel welcome and to be able to bring the food they love,” Coleman said. “We don't want people to think because it's Black History Month that we just want that kind of food – we want everybody to enjoy themselves and bring be part of it. If they cook their own meals and stuff, they would feel more part of celebration, because this really should be just a celebration of everybody.”
“And anyone wanting to bring any food can call myself or Floyd, and we'll make sure to find a spot for whatever they're bringing. I love tasting different types of food, and that's what this is all about, so it would be good everyone possible brought some of their favorite food,” Hammond added. “It doesn't matter if it's spaghetti and meatballs, meatloaf, a bread that you enjoy cooking, or a cake, you can bring whatever you want. Whatever you bring doesn't have to be an entrée, it can be a dessert, a salad, any of those things.”
Hammond and Coleman said they hope to see large turnout to the month’s events.
“Like I said earlier, I'm really excited for the community church service, I think it'll be neat to see how many different churches are represented, but we are obviously not going to ask anyone their denomination or anything like that, but I think it would be interesting to just see how many churches actually participate,” Coleman said. “Then, with the Taste Fest, the food is free, and you cannot get better free food than coming to our event. The application for the Rosa Parks Scholarship is still available, and that will be for the next few weeks, and we encourage as many students to apply for that as possible. We then have an outside group look at the essays and then decide who will actually receive the scholarship(s).”
“And with the Gospel Fest, we won't turn anybody down that wants to come sing – anybody who wants to participate in any of it, we're not going to turn them down. It's one of those situations where we can say the more the merrier,” Hammond added with a chuckle. “And with the Rosa Parks Scholarship Banquet, the choir from Seymour Rogers Middle School will be coming and singing that evening and providing some entertainment for everyone, and that should be really nice. We don't put these events on for ourselves, we put them on for the community and everyone in it. It does not matter if you're young or old, if you're new to town or have lived here for multiple decades, all that matters is bringing people together to celebrate the community. We definitely want a crowd at every event. I can see that and want that. The main goal is to get the public out and have the public enjoy what we put on – we've had a lot going on these past couple years, and we need to come together more as a community. It's not for just the members of the committee, it's for the entire Liberal community as a whole. And all of the events are a great time to fellowship with others, so just come on out and enjoy a good time.”
Hammond also offered encouragement for more people to join the Black History Committee.
“We are trying to get a youth Black History Committee started and get people interested – and a lot of times, it's not that they're not interested, but a lot of young people now work and/or go to school,” Hammond said. “If there are any young people that would like to become a part of our committee, we meet every Saturday at 10 a.m. at Liberal Memorial Library. We would love for people to say 'I would like to see how you do this and why you do this.' We do these events to help young people understand the struggles their grandparents had to go through, they don't fully understand the struggles they dealt with all the way back then. It's always a great learning experience.”
Overall, Coleman said, the committee is looking forward to another successful Black History Month in Liberal.
“Like we say every year, if you're someone who's never been to any of our celebrations, this year would be a great time to come, and you're guaranteed to enjoy it, no matter what you come to,” Coleman said. “I like to see the expressions on everyone's face as they come in for everything. Everyone greets each other and everyone's happy to see everyone else, and it's great to see everyone come together. I feel like society's become more bitter in the past few years, so anytime you can bring people together, it's absolutely worth it.”
