Akoma Day: Remember Black Love (Online Talk)

THURSDAY FEB 13, 2025 at 7:30 P.M.

 

Black Love in Boston. What memory do we have of Black Love in the community formations in the North End? Beacon Hill? The South End? And David Walker City (Roxbury, Dorchester and Mattapan)? Come through for a little illustrated talk on it with Bro. Joel on Akoma day at 7:30pm. Free. Register below to receive the zoom link below.

LeT US know you are ATTENDING

 

Don’t know what Akoma day is?

Nya Akoma (pronounced N yah Ah coma) is the greeting for Akoma Day, also known as Black Love Day, which means get a heart, be patient, return to love. Black Love Day was founded by Ms. Ayo Handy-Kendy, affectionately known as Mama Ayo, in 1993. In 2001, Montsho and Nwasha Edu expanded on the original tenets and purpose to become an international cultural holiday rooted in African spirituality. Akoma Day is a cultural and spiritual alternative to Valentine's Day. The focus of Akoma Day is the intimate relationship and how that relationship creates family, neighborhood, community and nationhoods.

About Your Workshop Facilitator

Bro. Joel Mackall

Is an award-winning Educator & Project Developer with the ReIdren Business Group based in Roxbury MA.  He was the co-founder of the SOS Living Museum, the Hidden History of Black Boston Tours, the Nubian Writer's Group and is a self-published author.  He has also served as secretary of the Cameroonians of Lowell Association, as an officer on the Warren Gardens Housing Cooperative board, on the advisory council of the Network of Immigrant and African American Solidarity and as a technology chairperson with the Black Community Information Center. 

    Bro. Joel presented "Excellence AND Culture: Operating Your Cooperative Better, Simpler and Truer" at the National Association of Housing Cooperatives Annual Conference in St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands and "Why Do We Black Folks Hate On Each Other?" at the Association for the Study of Classical African Civilizations' Ancient Egyptian Studies Conference in Newark, NJ.  He has led/facilitated numerous professional workshops in Greater Boston on topics including genealogy, African & world history, business design and technology at the Freedom House, Mother Caroline Academy, Warren Gardens, Roxbury Multi-Service Center, Roxbury Community College, Emerson College, Suffolk University, South Bay House of Correction, almost all of the BPL neighborhood branches and Walden Square Technology Center (north Cambridge), in both English and Spanish. To learn more/contact Joel at SNLREIDREN or drop a message.

Projects & Awards

•Fairmount Cultural Corridor Artist Commission Grant – for “Radical Welcoming: Docu-Poetry Workshop for Greater Upham’s Corner” (2021)

•Tufts Medical Center Community COVID-19 Relief & Recovery Program Grant – for Startup Design for Businesses & Non-profits (2021-2)

•Malcolm X Afrikan Achievers Award for outstanding community service, from the Black Community Information Center Inc. (2021)

•Small Business Startup/Design Program grant, from Berkshire Bank Foundation Community Building (2020)

•Fellowes Athenaeum Trust Fund grants for Technology Instruction at the Dudley Branch Boston Public Library (2014), Smartphone for Seniors (2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019), Tracing our Roots / Facing Slavery – Family Genealogy (2006, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2022), Business Startup for Entrepreneurs (2020), African-American History Series (2021-2)

•Photography Exhibition: “African America in the Nile River Valley”, for the National Museum of Afro-American Artists (2019)

•Poetry/History Exhibition: “Hauntologies of David Walker City”, for the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture Grant, Codman Square Library Branch (2019)

•Creative Entrepreneur Fellowship - Business for Artists, for the Arts & Business Council of Greater Boston (2018)

•Hands-On Black History Learning Retreat, for the City of Boston Arts and Culture Opportunity Fund Grant (2017)

•Grove Hall Trust Fund Grant for African-American Genealogy programming (2016)

•Keeper of the Gardens Award for community service from Warren Gardens Housing Cooperative (2009, 2014)

•The Archie Williams Jr. Technology Award from the Freedom House Inc. (April 2010)