One holiday tradition my mom always wanted to do with us but never did is celebrate Kwanzaa. She did educate me on what it is and what everything means, but we never got around to ever doing it. But now that I’m starting my own family, I wanted to do celebrate this year (even if Pre-K Kid won’t remember it lol) That way we’ll be ready to celebrate it the way we should when the Pre-K Kid is bigger.
So, for 2025 I decided to celebrate Kwanzaa through literature again. I’ll be listing the principles for each day along with a book that matches the principles. If you can think of other titles that match the principles, tell me, I’d love to discuss.
Day 5 is Nia. It means Purpose. The process is much of the same, light the previous candles, and then light the green one that is next to the Black candle. The person who lights it then makes a statement about Purpose.
I saw that Nia could mean Identifying your talents and how you can use them in service to others, so I took that to mean that I should be helping where I can at the library. So I thought I could do this by helping out in a small way. If anyone asks for a recommendation, I’m going out of my way to make sure it’s diverse in some way. Yes this is par for the program around here, but one thing I want to focus on in 2026 is intersectionality. Intersectionality is how various social identities overlap. With the world focused so much on skin color, I want to bring spotlight on the fact that people come in all shapes and sizes and intellects etc. People are not just one type of person. There are Black men who might be fat and there are Black women who might have anxiety. And I want to talk about and get to know all of them. So be prepared for me to also be using those books as recommendations as well.
The book I thought of when thinking of one’s contributing skills and talents to benefit the whole, fostering shared destiny and mutual upliftment.
I immediately thought of the Savvy and the way she used her knowledge of the customers to find out what happened to her one customer. And the way the entire community knew about her and her sweet potato pies! They were so loved they even made a different baker jealous. She used her cooking skills to get clues that helped her solve a murder in one scene and I don’t know what else to say to prove she isn’t one of the coolest fictional people ever. I loved them so much lol
What about you? What books do you think of when you think of Nia or Purpose? Do you think of this one as well? Let me know in the comments!