By Hannah E. Jones
On the last Tuesday of the year, DeKalb County Public Library (DCPL) invites the community to join its celebration of Kwanzaa and the 30th anniversary of the naming of the Wesley Chapel-William C. Brown Library. The Dec. 27 event is free and open to the public.
The event is part of the annual Doris K. Wells Heritage Festival, which was created in 1983 as the Kwanzaa Awareness Festival. The festival was spearheaded by Doris Wells, the county’s first Black professional librarian. What began as a week-long celebration has evolved into a festival with 25-plus programs in December and January.
Although the festival has evolved over the decades, Director Alison Weissinger said its core mission has stayed the same — “to celebrate DeKalb’s diversity.”
The event will include a Kwanzaa ceremony — on the second day of the holiday — that will include traditional African dance, drummers and a kinara with seven candles that represent the Seven Principles of Kwanzaa.
“We are a majority-minority county,” Weissinger said. “We want to make sure that our patrons feel like the programs reflect their culture and history.”
The celebration will also include a remembrance of William C. Brown, the library’s namesake. Brown served as a DeKalb County Commissioner and was also on the DCPL Board of Trustees for 14 years, acting as chairperson for 12 of those years. Brown was a champion for the library system and was instrumental in passing a $29 million bond referendum that led to 12 new libraries and the renovation of several others.
While the programming itself is culturally important, the festival is also a yearly celebration of Wells and her lasting legacy. When Weissinger was starting her career at the Wesley Chapel Library in 1997, Wells was her manager. She described Wells as “one of those super special people who leave a big impact on you.”
“To work under Doris was great because she was super involved in the community, super interested in programming and really making those connections between people and books — making the library a focal point of the community, a place where people could come and enjoy the space, a program, or just the company of the community,” Weissinger said. “I think we can point to her work in DeKalb as a catalyst for creating the library as the heart of the community.”
The event is on Dec. 27 from 5:45 to 7:45. While not required, folks interested in attending can register for the event here, as there’s a capacity of 75 people.
