This Little Light Of Mine: Addena’s Newsletter

Dec 23, 2023

Welcome to new Subscribers and Thank You to those who have been following “This Little Light Of Mine” for welcoming me back to your Inboxes.

This Newsletter issue will be a condensed one as I am away on holidays in 🇯🇲🇯🇲🎉🎉.

First, I’m announcing some great news:

HAPPY HOLIDAYS LIMITED TIME SPECIAL SALE 💖

Books are magic! 💥 so …. Put a little Magic in your life.

Get any print version and save 15% + Free Shipping! Until February 28th to celebrate the Holiday Season and Black History Month

I'm offering this special discount for a limited time. So take advantage and order yours from my website today P.S. books make wonderful gifts for the holidays! Go to : addenasumterfreitag.com

Let me catch you up on the news and what’s upcoming:

November was a busy and exciting month ! An English professor, Murray Leeder, from University of Winnipeg, who was teaching a course on Literature of Manitoba, included my book “ Stay Black & Die” as one of the class’s course reading material books. He and his class subsequently invited me to talk with them about the book, and have a Question and Answer session after that. They also requested I provide them with a reading of the stories of the Black Canadian Soldiers stories: “When the Soldiers Stayed with Us” and “A Soldiers Dreams” and “ Aunt Ethel’s Boys” from my second book, “Back In The Days” because of their Winnipeg connection of those soldier’s stories.

It was a really great session. A few of the Aboriginal students in his class shared that they could personally relate to my family’s stories and experiences of prejudice and discrimination because they, and their families, have historically experienced racism and prejudice as First Nations Canadians.

In November, I was also invited to perform in February for the “B.C. Black History Awareness Society’s” Black History Month event in Victoria, at The Belfry Theatre. I am so honoured and so excited to be included this Black History Month event.

So…..Now it’s December and the Holiday Season is in full swing. We get to celebrate so many holidays like: Hanukah, Christmas, and Kwanza.

Hopefully these holidays bring us Joy and help us pause and reflect on what is important in our lives and in the world. The week of Kwanza does all that for me.

Kwanza, for those not familiar with it, is an African-American, Afro-Canadian, and Pan-African cultural holiday that is centered around seven principles called (in Swahili) Nguzo Saba. It has been observed for about 63years now. Each day of the week of Kwanza, starting on December 26, you are encouraged to reflect on a different principal.

There are seven. (I will outline them later in this Newsletter).

Our daughter, April Lois Sumter-Freitag, started our family and friends celebrating Kwanza. She arranged that we all get together during the week and share drinks, eats, have Potlucks, make great 🎶🎶 music, perform poetry, tell stories, and whomever is there, no matter their religion, their colour, or how they identify, they are our Family, and our “Community”. ♥️♥️

On the last day of Kwanza (or on the weekend) we have a big Potluck Feast. After we've eaten and we are all just 'Chillin' ...we 'go around the room in a circle' and each person shares "what they are grateful for", or shares their plans and goals for the New Year, or.... they share what ever they may want to say in this group of safe and trusted friends gathered together.

Nowadays, our Kwanza observances and celebrations can be in person, or we may have to gather together via Zoom, or Messenger, on Facebook, Emails, or by phone, but the Love will be there, it always is, and the connections will remain strong, because 🎶🎶🎶 “We are Family” ♥️♥️

Today, I am already reflecting on the principals of the first day of Kwanza, it is a day to set aside time to think about, discuss, or practice the principal of. ... UNITY./ Umoja.

I am, this year again , also reflecting on the awareness that I am grateful for, not only my family, but my "community of friends" here, (and the world over) that I get to unite with. I am grateful to you all for: your love, your support, your encouragement, your sharing, your caring, and your respect.

You give me laughter and joy and above all … hope.

These days, in particular, those feelings are crucial for all of us to experience. They give us strength. We are blessed by our Unity/ (Umoja)

As Kwanza approaches, I want to celebrate give thanks to The Universe for my gifts and talents, for my family, relatives, friends, and supporters.

I am thankful too that I stopped being afraid to create and offer my work out in the world.

I am grateful to my partner in crime, my husband Irvin, and to my daughter April, my friends Glory and Doug (who advised and encouraged me to publish a Newsletter to share my thoughts, ideas, and writing with others. Thank you to Shelley Whitehead for all her ideas and help to get me started and keep me going. Another big thanks to my niece Rowan McCandles, whose newly published book keeps her busy doing readings and promotions yet she still time to encourage and support me. I am especially grateful and proud that I published two books, (and they are also in eBook format) whose provocative stories share Black History and experiences as well as illuminates the uniqueness and the sameness of all us .

I don’t take any of you for granted, and I am proud and grateful for your support and the support of some of my family and friends. You buy and help promote my books, you come to see me perform stories and poetry, and you all encourage me to keep trying and keep promoting my writing and my books.

I will keep trying … even though sometimes it seems like it’s overwhelming and it’s Against all Odds.

Bless Up..

🔶♦️🔶♦️🔶♦️🔶♦️🔶♦️🔶♦️🔶♦️🔶♦️🔶♦️🔶♦️🔶

HAPPY KWANZA TO ALL

The Seven Principles of Kwanza are :

Umoja (Unity)

Umoja (OO-MO-JAH) Unity stresses the importance of togetherness for the family and the community, which is reflected in the African saying, "I am We," or "I am because We are."