St James’ Annual Kwanzaa Celebration

This interactive community and family event will take place on Zoom during Coffee Hour after 10:15 worship, and is open to ALL.

• Join us on Zoom! Register now: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_wCatapjYSgCyEOpKk6b05A (Note we are using Zoom Webinar, which is similar to our regular Zoom format, except that only speakers/panelists are on screen when you log on.)
• Click here to view the Kwanzaa St James Program 2020  handout and read along.
• Karamu Feast! Traditionally, during Kwanzaa, we break bread together, sharing in a feast that celebrates the foodways of both our families of origin and of our community. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, we can’t eat together in-person as we have in the past. This gives us the opportunity to expand our tables in creative ways. Please be encouraged to support local Black chefs and Black owned restaurants, food trucks, trailers, caterers (for delivery, take out, or in a safely distanced way), and cookbook authors from the African diaspora, and share your family recipes with those you love. Here is a list of restaurants and businesses (see our KWANZAA BUSINESS GUIDE) to get you started.

This event features performances, reflections, candle lighting, community, and honoring those who came before, including our St James’ founders.

Our guest artists:

Chaz Nailor
Church attendees will recognize this familiar face, as Chaz’s baritone voice is no stranger to the choir loft of St James’ Episcopal Church, Austin. He is currently on the artistic rosters of professional and semi-professional vocal ensembles in south central Texas, including the San Antonio Chamber Choir (SACC), among in-residence artists at The Tobin Center for the Performing Arts. He also serves as a Staff Musician at St. David’s Episcopal Church in downtown Austin and as Bass Baritone Section Leader for Chorus Austin’s Symphonic Chorus. For this year’s Kwanzaa celebration, Chaz will sing “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” accompanied by Sharon Coleman on piano.

Kanani St James
An accomplished poet, storyteller, dancer, entertainer, and clothing designer, Kanani St James is also a published book author who has toured nationally sharing stories, spoken word, and poetry, and gives talks on cultural diversity. Kanani is the daughter of the late Otis and Hortense Lawson. She and her family have been a part of the St James’ community since 1946.

Keito St James
Keito is a multicultural performing artist based in Austin, and is currently a Spanish teacher at the Texas Empowerment Academy in East Austin. He is the owner of Tropical Productions Entertainment and the Keito Academy of Ethno-Cultural Performing Arts providing the community with multicultural education entertainment for the past 30 years. Raised in Hawaii and California, Keito was born into the St James’ Episcopal Church, baptized at the original church building on 7th Street. He is also the grandson of the late Cleo Hortense Lawson and the late James Otis Lawson, who were active members of St James’ Episcopal Church since 1946. Keito has been performing and participating in St James’ activities, like Kwanzaa and many others, since the 1980s.

Kelenne Blake
Kelenne Blake is an educator, activist and creative from Trinidad and Tobago and based in Austin. She is a lecturer at Huston-Tillotson University and a board member of Black Mamas ATX. As a creative, she does visual and performance art as well as writing, including poetry and screenwriting. She is also a certified herbalist and emotional wellness facilitator. Living in the intersections as a Black immigrant woman, everything she does involves working creatively with vulnerable communities, disrupting false hierarchies and creating spaces for those communities to assert their unique voices, perspectives and power — and, in so doing, creating a better world.

Gifts of cultural, educational, or hand made significance are often exchanged during Kwanzaa. In December, the children and youth of St. James’ will receive or have received zawadi, which means gift in Swahili (a Kwanzaa themed picture book for children and a Kwanzaa themed cookbook for youth) from St. James’ Family Ministries and the Union of Black Episcopalians (UBE) Myra McDaniel Chapter, who are co-hosting our annual celebration.

To learn more about Kwanzaa, please visit https://stjamesaustin.org/children-youth/kwanzaa/

To join the Myra McDaniel Chapter of the Union of Black Episcopalians (which is open to all), please fill out and return the membership application. For more information about UBE or the UBE Youth program, contact Sue Reed Tate, President, UBE Myra McDaniel Chapter.