More than 75 adults and children filled the community room at the Francis Gregory Library in Southeast Washington, DC for the second annual Read Africa program, twice as many than those who attended the first event last year. Read Africa, commented librarian Maria Escher, seeks to “foster diversity, global citizenry, and early literacy.”

This year’s featured storyteller, Anna Mwalagho, edutained the audience through song, acting, dance, comedy, and poetry  - -  often introducing Ki-Swahili words along the way. The near capacity audience sitting on the floor, standing, and sitting in chairs provided a great backdrop while the Voice of America gathered data and film for a report on the event.

The festival also introduced West African finger food including chin chin, fish rolls, meat pies, and fried plantains to the audience. This year, the patrons, who included Prince George’s Country Poet Laureate Joy Alford, also got recipes and background information on the foods the festival served.

Before ending the two-hour event, adults and children colored Adinkra symbols and made passports and crafts from material remnants. They also chose an Africa Access vetted book to take home.

Africa Access vets books for their accuracy in their depictions of Africa and that the festival encourages participants to read. Africa Access holds the annual Children’s Africana Book Awards and Book Festival at the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art on Saturday, March 28.

Africa Access encourages the national observance of Read Africa week during the first week of February, during Black History Month. Read Africa Week Festival @ Francis Gregory Library is supported by the DC Public Library, Friends of the Francis Gregory Library, Africa Access, and the Port Of Harlem Gambian Education Partnership (POHGEP).

“Not only did we double the crowd this year, the people came from beyond east of the river ZIP codes and the adjacent Suitland area,” says Wayne Young, president of (POHGEP). “They came as far as Dale City, Virginia and Pomfret, Maryland,” he continued. For nearly half of the event’s participants, this was their first visit to the Alabama Avenue, SE library.

About a four of ten attendees were from ZIP code 20020 this year, compared to 30 percent last year. One 20020 residents wrote on their questionnaire, “This was an event that was enjoyable for the whole family.”


Voice Of America:  Février aux Etats-Unis : le mois de l’histoire noire américaine (February in the United States: the month of black American history)