Three African activists and keepers of the culture that Port Of Harlem (POH) have featured Melvin Foote, Brenda Randolph, and Baba-C were recently named honorees for their African-centered work. “It is always good and an inspiration for us to have people in our sphere honored for their world African-related work,” says POH publisher Wayne Young.

Mali awarded Melvin Foote, Founder and President of Constituency for Africa, at its embassy in Washington, DC. for his work over many years in support of Mali in the United States.  The Washington, D.C.-based network of organizations, groups, and individuals commit themselves to the progress and empowerment of Africa and African people worldwide. Mali made the presentations for the “The Knight of the National Order of Mali” he received via Zoom.

Similar to Foote, Brenda Randolph’s African advocacy runs deep.  She is the president of Africa Access and Outreach Director at the Title VI Center for African Studies, Howard University, but it was in the late 1960s that she co-founded the Southern Africa Relief Fund to assist the victims of apartheid and Portuguese colonialism.

In 1989, she founded Africa Access to combat stereotypes about Africa and help schools, public libraries, and parents improve the quality of their K-12 collections on Africa. In 1991 Africa Access, in collaboration with the African Studies Association, founded the Children’s Africana Book Award that honors the authors and illustrators of outstanding K-12 books on Africa. In 2015, Randolph created the Discover Africa in the Americas website and in 2020 The Gold Road website in collaboration with the African Studies Centers at Howard University and Boston University.

Read Africa at the Francis Gregory Library (In Southeast DC) co-sponsored by Port Of Harlem magazine is an offshoot of Randolph’s work.  Griot Baba-C’s performance at the first Gregory Library event helped make it an annual in-person event.

If it was not for the pandemic, Baba-C may have not gotten started with sharing his stories with at the World Storytelling Cafe Zoom. His participation in a Moroccan-based storytelling cafe landed him an award in the form of an invitation to the World Storytelling Cafe’s International Storytelling Festival in Marrakech, Morocco, February 12-20, 2022. His GoFundMe page has already raised $1,200 of the $3,500 needed to help defray airfare, lodging, meals, and other trip-related expenses.

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Books
A Conversation with Children’s Africana Book Award Winners
Thu, Nov 4, 3p

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Note: World Storytelling Café Schedule – see new performances (times are set at British Summer Time (BST), which is 5 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time (EST)). Archived performances are also available.