WINTER PARK, Fla. – The Equity Council Corp. will celebrate Black History Month at Hannibal Square, a historic African American community.
This weekend’s 1619Fest will commemorate the arrival of Blacks to the U.S. in 1619. This year marks Winter Park’s third annual 1619Fest. A three-day festival will host a slew of events, including an art exhibit on Friday, the Rebel Run 5K on Saturday, and a film showing followed by a panel discussion on Sunday.
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The art exhibit on Friday will happen from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. in partnership with the Hannibal Square Heritage Center. This center houses the African American history of West Winter Park by showcasing stories and photographs from residents that portray what life was like prior to West Winter Park’s gentrification.
Barbara Chandler, manager of the Hannibal Square Heritage Center, said the point of the 1619Fest is to have attendees feel a sense of belonging.
“Something that we’ve realized in this type of community cultural program is that people remember how you’ve made them feel,” Chandler said. “We want them to feel like they belong to this community.”
Chasing that sense of belonging, ECC partnered with Birthright Africa to help send 12 individuals, ages 18-30, to Rwanda in December 2022. Lawanda Thompson, president of ECC, said all funds from the Rebel Run and the film and panel discussion will go toward this trip.
“Two years ago, this was a thought that came to mind about how we can get people on the continent,” Thompson said. “It’s time for us to return, to take a visit to the continent of Africa, to search our DNA, and to spiritually reconnect with the practices of our homeland.”
The Rebel Run and the film and panel discussion will be the key to this trip. The Rebel Run will take place Saturday morning, and the gun goes off at 7:30 a.m. Thompson encourages everyone to pre-register as soon as possible.
“This is a running tour,” Thompson said. “[The participants] can see everything: The good of the community, because it’s so beautiful, and also some of the bad things that are going on, like gentrification.”
Thompson said this event is meant to be a reflective period for her community. These reflections lead to brilliant innovations, such as the SOKO Marketplace, an economic engine for entrepreneurs of color.
“We reflect and decide, ‘What do we need to do about our community and our upliftment as a people?’” Thompson said. “There are discussions, and we just make decisions. We party, yes, but we learn and talk.”
One of the best products of these discussions is the SOKO Marketplace. After ECC hosted several vendors at the first 1619Fest in 2020, vendors began requesting the marketplace become a weekly event.
“When we looked at the research that came from the 1619 Project, we saw that [a marketplace for people of color] was a need, that it was a necessity,” Thompson said. “We partnered with the Parks & Recreation department of the city of Winter Park and had some discussions.”
Now the SOKO Marketplace is going on its third year of existence. Although the marketplace typically happens every Saturday at Shady Park from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., it will be open this weekend on Sunday for the festival.
Following the SOKO Marketplace, ECC will host a film and panel discussion, led by Dr. Kevin Washington, an Afrikan-Centered psychologist who works on healing the psycho-spiritual wounds that happen because of cultural and historical trauma.
“I call it persistent enslavement systemic trauma,” Washington said. “We can engage in the healing process by identifying [this trauma] and identifying ourselves.”
Participating in the Rebel Run 5K is $35 and attending the film and panel discussion is $20. You can find tickets here.
The schedule can be found here.
“Come out, it’s Black History Month!” Thompson encouraged. “We want to actually have a moment in time to take that all in, that’s what the 1619Fest is all about.”