Sharing a meal. Storytelling. Singing. Insightful discussion.
These are just some of the enlightening and creative ways Southern Connecticut State University is coming together to celebrate and honor Black History at its second Liberation Table event, a new Black diasporic tradition.
The Integrated Justice & Social Change Collaborative and Africana Studies at SCSU are partnering with Liberation Table to present The Liberation Table: Connecting to Black History through Food and Fellowship.
Part of the university’s Black History Month of events, it takes place on Saturday, February 10 from noon to 3 p.m. at the university’s Community Room, School of Business Building.
Admission is $12 per person for the Liberation Table meal and guide. The event is open to students and community members. Organizers ask that participants plan to stay the full three hours and encourages them to bring a cultural artifact to share. RSVP by Wednesday, February 8 at: forms.office.com/r/sE3yLsTGxc.
Dr. Sousan Arafeh, director of the Integrated Justice & Social Change Collaborative, said the collaborative “strives to encourage understanding through connection by helping elevate the equity-focused work of community-based individuals and organizations.
“We are inspired by, and grateful for, Liberation Table’s meaningful approaches for celebrating Black identity, history, healing, and transformative power,” Arafeh said.
A Liberation Table is a two-to-four-hour multigenerational gathering for family and friends of Black people of the African Diaspora that involves a traditional meal with African roots, storytelling, poems, rituals, and discussion questions.
Liberation Table, the organization and practice, was founded by Hillary Bridges, Benie N’sumbu, and Samantha Sims to celebrate Black history and culture by inaugurating new traditions: Liberation Table and the Liberation Table Calendar. The latter is a monthly guide of activities that offers an intentional, daily Black History Month practice to help people to deepen connections with themselves and their community and to reflect on the history of innovation, resilience, solidarity, and strength as Black people.
“So many of us want to celebrate ourselves during Black History Month but have no idea what to do. We created the Liberation Calendar to give people bite-sized, daily activities to both re-engage with their roots throughout the month and also as a way to prepare to host a Liberation Table,” said Bridges.
A Liberation Table can be hosted throughout the year, but most often it’s held during Black History Month and on Juneteenth. The objective is to encourage fellowship among participants and connection to their family, friends, history, and culture.
A special downloadable Liberation Table Guide and a short video is available on the Liberation Table website that provides participants with historical context and activities. In addition, the Liberation Table has partnered with the African American Policy Forum and the Freedom to Learn network to launch a 2024 Liberation Table Calendar that is described as “a guide to daily, intentional Black History Month practices, opportunities for reflection, and calls for action.”
According to Liberation Table, they envision a world wherein all Black people are free from oppression and are grounded in their connections to each other. By hosting a Liberation Table, people of African descent can come together in deep, meaningful thought and understanding as they celebrate their shared Black History, according to Liberation Table.
The Liberation Table aligns with the mission of SCSU collaborative as “an interdisciplinary, people-first initiative at SCSU dedicated to holding space for conversation, connection and engaged action that fosters equity and a deeper sense of community among the people, organizations, and places around us,” according to a statement. “It also furthers the mission of Africana Studies that seeks to introduce students to the examination and study of global Black history and contemporary Black people’s experiences through the interdisciplinary minor and its university and community-based programming partnerships.
“It provides a historical and a contemporary understanding of African diasporic people’s history, politics, and cultural contributions,” the statement said.
“The Africana Studies Steering Committee is excited to partner with the Integrated Justice & Social Change Collaborative and Liberation Table in hosting this event. Our hope is that students, faculty, staff, and community members leave feeling empowered to employ Liberation Table strategies in breaking bread with their families,” said Dr. Siobhan Carter-David, co-director of the Africana Studies Program. “The Liberation Table offers a beautiful reminder of how far we have come and how far we still have to go as resilient and creative survivors of slavery and colonialism in the modern world.”
