The College of St. Scholastica will host an African Heritage Festival beginning at 4 p.m. Saturday, March 29, in Tower Hall on the St. Scholastica campus. The event is open to the public.

Ilyasah Shabazz, daughter of slain civil rights leader Malcolm X, will provide the keynote address. The festival also includes local African dance and musical groups, spoken word artists, a fashion show, crafts bazaar and authentic African food.

Tickets may be purchased at the door. They are $10 for singles, $15 for couples and $6 for students with identification; children five and under are free. Proceeds benefit pediatric nutrition programs in the Darfur region of western Sudan.

Food and a crafts bazaar will be available beginning at 4 p.m. in the Student Union, which is in the lower level of Tower Hall.

The program begins at 5:30 p.m. in Mitchell Auditorium. Shabazz will speak at approximately 6:30 p.m. The program will include:

• Voices of Vision, a youth gospel choir
• Local hip-hop group ‘2one8’
• Sister Naomi Tamar, a poet and motivational speaker
• Fashion show with creations by designer Côté Minou
• African and hip-hop dance groups from Duluth, the Twin Cities and Madison, WI
• Darfur documentary by UMD student Akin Falade

The event is organized by United for Africa, a student advocacy group at St. Scholastica. The group’s purpose is “to inform and mobilize the College community on issues affecting Africa and its diaspora,” a term that refers to any people or ethnic population forced or induced to leave their traditional homelands.

“With this event, United for Africa seeks to promote St. Scholastica's Benedictine value of community while celebrating the cultural impact the African continent has had globally,” said St. Scholastica senior Rumbi Sithole, an event organizer.

St. Scholastica junior Axum Gabriel, another organizer of the event, said: “My main goal for the festival is for people belonging to any race or creed to gather together and see how special Africa really is. And to understand that the stereotypes of black people need to end, because at the end of the day we are all one and the same.”

Shabazz is president and board member of The Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Education Center. The Center is in New York City’s Audubon Ballroom building, the site of Malcolm X’s assassination in 1965. She also serves as Director of Arts and Culture for the City of Mount Vernon, NY, where she creates and implements programs in support of the Mayor’s Youth Empowerment Program.

She is the author of “Growing Up X,” which was nominated for a NAACP Image Award and selected as a United Press International Book of the Week. The book was on the bestseller lists of BET.com and Essence Magazine.

Shabazz accompanied President Bill Clinton on his historic visit to South Africa in 1998. She has explored religious and historical sites in Jordan and Egypt as the guest of Her Royal Highness Princess Alia al-Hussein.

She holds a master’s degree in education and human resource development from Fordham University in Bronx, New York.

For more information or to purchase tickets in advance, contact Sithole at rsithole@css.edu or (347) 605-3178.