Houston – On Saturday October 30, 2010, the All African People’s Development and Empowerment Project (AAPDEP) Fifth Ward Community Garden hosted The One Africa! One Nation! Marketplace, Block Party and Music Festival.
Hundreds of Houston residents came out to the Festival filled with children playing and entertainers on stage on a beautiful sunny day.
Around 2pm, the event’s organizer, Nykeba Griffin, gave the opening speech, welcoming everyone to the festival and educating them on the purpose of the marketplace.
“Our resources are leaving our community too much as opposed it circulating within our community,” she said, “It’s a shame that our neighbors may possess talents and resources that we go outside of the community to spend our money on.”
The crowd thickened as performers were well into their acts.
Halfway through the day, Comrade Omowale Kefing gave a passionate speech, praising The One Africa! One Nation! Marketplace and enlightening the audience on Black Wall Street, African People’s Socialist Party (APSP) and AAPDEP.
He encouraged them to join the Black is Back Mobilization in Washington DC on November 13.
The children loved the “Scary House,” as they went through it multiple times. The moonwalk kept the smaller children busy for hours.
The audience loved the entertainers as well as the vendors who came out and participated in the event.
The event overall won over many potential party members, as residents praised the event. One resident stated, “Don’t let this be the last time you do this; you’ve got to do this again.”
Receiving so much positive feedback from the community puts us in a great position to do this again.
With a tremendous amount of donations from the community, The One Africa! One Nation! Marketplace was well received.
We have already gone into the planning phase for the next One Africa! One Nation! Marketplace; at this point, we can do nothing but get better with time.
With an obvious need for marketplaces within the community to stimulate economic growth and strengthen unity, we believe this will be a continued success.
Many thanks to the McHenry Family for donating the land where the AAPDEP Fifth Ward Community Garden is located.
Many thanks to the entertainers, Bishop Black, The 144 Elite, MJ, David Sha, EB Madman, Khalila K. Nice, Yung Le, Raw Click, Notchie Flannagan, James Handy, Juan “Detroit” Lansky (co-emcee), True and Danny Russo.
Many thanks to the vendors and to Vicki Jackson and Mimi Archie for their contributions to the Halloween Party, also to those who spent countless hours helping to organize, put up posters and passing out flyers.
Many thanks to Lawrence and Ruth Thomas for their donating a port-a-toilet, and James Coleman for his overall work in making the event happen.
Many thanks to Sam Fields and Jody Burnett who spent 3 days constructing the “Scary House.”
Most of all, many thanks to those who came out to support the event, to the community, The Office of the Chairman, APSP, AAPDEP and most importantly to the people! Uhuru!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QscFiIPnnnw
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