Local nonprofit to host Southern Oregon community celebration with live music, dancing and African American cultural tradition
Ashland.news staff report
A Kwanzaa cultural celebration featuring live music, dancing, and dinner is set for 5:30 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 28, at the Historic Ashland Armory. Southern Oregon nonprofit BASE — Black Alliance Social Empowerment — organized the event, coinciding with its mission to support Black residents through community events and resources, its website says.
Sunday’s Kwanzaa celebration, according to the website, is “a time to look back, reflect and build on the new year ahead.”
The deets
RSVP to Kwanzaa community celebration, 5:30 p.m., Sunday, Dec. 28, at the Historic Ashland Armory
Kwanzaa, an annual week-long celebration of African-American culture, is a time for communities to close the year together and “step into the new one with purpose,” the registration form reads.
This year’s celebration, the form continues, will honor Ujima, or collective work and responsibility, which is one of the seven principles of Kwanzaa. The form explains this means “lifting up the ways we show up for one another and build together.”
According to the National Museum of African American History and Culture, communities light a candle each day throughout the week-long celebration to highlight the principle of the day.
The evening celebration will include a candle lighting honoring all seven principles of Kwanzaa.
“Kwanzaa’s principles are the values we practice at BASE year-round,” the event form reads, “Come celebrate, reconnect, and help us carry Ujima into the new year together.”
Sunday’s event will also feature a presentation from the nonprofit featuring youth voices. A cash/debit bar for guests 21 and over will also be available.
BASE confirmed in Dec. 23 email there is still time (despite what the form says) to RSVP to the event for $15 per person to save a spot. Others can walk up to the door for $20 per person, but entry depends on space.
Email Ashland.news reporter Sydney Seymour at sydneyseymourr@gmail.com.
Related stories:
BASE Southern Oregon among 91 organizations to receive cultural grants (Dec. 18, 2025)
Building a BASE: Black Alliance & Social Empowerment works on community building (Feb. 9, 2024)
