Philadelphia, PA—On Saturday February 1, 2014, Uhuru Furniture & Collectibles opened at a new, much larger and more beautiful location at 832 N. Broad St. in Philadelphia.
“This signifies a new beginning for the growth and influence of the Uhuru Movement in Philadelphia,” said African People’s Socialist Party Chairman Omali Yeshitela.
After 20 years in Center City, Uhuru Furniture is now in the heart of a north Philadelphia community with a deep history of thriving African self-reliance and self-determination institutions and movements!
We invite everyone to the Uhuru Furniture & Collectibles' Grand Opening Celebration on Saturday, March 15 and a movement-wide meeting led by Chairman Omali Yeshitela, Deputy Chair Ona Zene’ Yeshitela and International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement President Waleeah Brooks on Sunday, March 16 to call together friends, supporters and members to build these contending power programs that address the urgent needs in our community and give us a future independent of the economic crisis of imperialism.
Driven by African self-determination
Uhuru Furniture is a block away from the Divine Lorraine hotel, where Father Divine built legendary African community programs; it is just blocks from the Uptown Theater where people came from all over to enjoy some of the best African music in the country.
Marcus Garvey’s organization, the Universal Negro Improvement Association, still has an office in this historic neighborhood. The APSP continues this legacy of building independent African institutions and economic development.
Uhuru Furniture & Collectibles is part of the Party’s practical work for national economic self-reliance.
The Party is developing and promoting economic development for the entire African nation.
As the Chairman states in the Political Report to the Sixth Party Congress, “(this) work done since the inception of our movement and the Party itself is a concrete manifestation of our ideology. It represents a measurable example of our political struggle against foreign and alien colonial domination. It is one of the things that shows the Party’s commitment to national liberation is not simply an abstract concept…
“Our work for self-determination and self-reliance functions to undermine the success of imperialism in the same way that struggles by the peoples of Venezuela, Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq challenge U.S. power. It is the transfer of the people’s resources away from the imperialist centers and back to the possession of the struggling peoples that is responsible for the crisis of imperialism.”
With the move, APEDF will grow our community programs!
This move of Uhuru Furniture & Collectibles will allow the Uhuru Movement, under the nonprofit African People’s Education & Defense Fund, to expand crucial programs that benefit the community, as well as develop new aspects of the furniture store’s products and services.
The city of Philadelphia has closed over 23 public schools in the African community and has drastically cut back on staff and nurses in the schools. This has resulted in at least one recent death of sixth-grader Laporshia Massey, who tragically died unnecessarily of an asthma attack because there was no nurse working that day at her elementary school!
Black and Latino communities in Philadelphia suffer some of the highest rates of poverty, child hunger, unemployment and imprisonment in the U.S.
The city chooses to allocate only six percent of its budget on education and is laying off 4000 school employees, while investing $400 million on a new prison at Graterford, and has built a huge new juvenile prison in West Philly!
APEDF has a different plan for young Africans and a strategy and vision for real development where the whole community can enjoy health, meaningful education and economic development in the hands of the African community ourselves!
With the move to a new building, APEDF plans to expand community health programs and services, including the annual Health Festival and Flea Market, along with health screenings and workshops.
We are calling on Africans to play a major role in these institutions and in building the Uhuru Movement in Philadelphia.
The community welcomes Uhuru Furniture!
As our staff and volunteers welcomed everyone into our new space, we were moved to see friends from our old location come by, and to have so many people from this historic African community welcome the African People’s Education and Defense Fund to the neighborhood!
Longtime shoppers, such as Kamulah and her children were happy that the store is now closer to where they live and that parking is available.
Orlando, Mike from Mode Modern, Butchie and his family who grew up right next door. Karen, Yvonne and too many others to mention came in to express support and excitement about the new space.
We have met many new friends, who made the trip to welcome us and express how glad they were that Uhuru Furniture is in their neighborhood! People have been watching the renovation of the building, and were waiting for it to open.
Many people were moved by the APEDF mission statement on a six-foot tall banner on the wall above the counter.
The APEDF mission statement reads, “The African People's Education & Defense Fund strives to develop and institutionalize programs to defend the human and civil rights of the African community, and to address the grave disparities in education, health, healthcare, and economic development faced by the African community.”
“That statement says it all, you’ll be seeing me again,” said a man who took store coupons to his church.
The move was possible thanks to our hardworking team of staff and volunteers!
Tim built the new sales desk and window display platform; Miguel and Jose led the painting team and the UFC team was in good spirits and fighting form as we moved seven full truck-loads of furniture from the old store and put it in place for the opening.
Many volunteers from Drexel and other schools did the hard work to make it all happen!
Please make a donation or sponsor a fundraiser to support the Uhuru Furniture Relocation Fund at apedf.org and attend our Grand Opening Celebration and meeting March 15-16, 2014.
