Galas are not only about dressing nice once in a while, smiling and meeting new people, Galas can also be a way of exchanging cultures and experiences, of celebrating History or just making history!
When a bunch of very clever historians get together to celebrate history we get : VIRGINIA STATE BLACK HISTORY MONTH GALA BY THE VIRGINIA BLACK HISTORY MONTH ASSOCIATION!
You are suppose to only take your body and glamour to Galas, but ladies....and gentlemen, I took it all , gave it all and got a shout out!!!!
That is right, the hosts and presenters of the Gala mentioned me as that lady who outreached to them from London and asked if she could join the Gala !As it was virtual because of the pandemic lockdown I was sold a ticket, then refunded and then got a shout out!
Very happy and obviously delighted!!!
The Gala was ever so classy , lots of youth singing, Afro American couples talking about their experience as being misrepresented in the media as divorced, broken, etc, and obviously history, but before we talk about the whole purpose of the Gala -History!- let me tell you this, I baked for the occasion just as if I was visiting the hosts themselves!
What did I bake? Well, I started by baking a typical Georgian Southern pie! Can you guess??? I baked Virginia State Rhubarb pie with crumble topping!
And thanks to who? Thanks to a fantastic blog by an online celebrity called Steve! If you haven't checked his step by step tutorials on Southern food , do check him out- he is awesome!!!
Polite as I am, I said thank you!
I also tried to balance this with healthier bakes so as to make for the rhubarb sweetness and the crumble sugar, so I baked a small corn bread and a few cheese muffins which baked quickly and tasted delicious!
The day itself was stressful, as as you can see by my clothing and stressed demeanour I was somewhere else! I was participating in break-out rooms discussions with other Afro Americans via a Urban League event that brought many community leaders and members of the community together to discuss pertinent issues that arouse with Cov-19.
I never thought that the pandemic could cut off people in need of clinical care from most basics, even safety. Also communities experiencing Cov-19 pandemic, homelessness in consequence of massive protests and arsons are left out of the media and their stories are left unheard but we have to discuss these issues and how many families had their businesses and family homes destroyed during Kenosha riots, Chicago riots etc and still after all Black Lives Matter protests we had rioters at the Capitol with hoses , torches, hammers, guns and chanting " Burn them up, gas them up, round them up!"
The idea that we are progressing out of hate crime is a unconcreted state of affairs because we jump from one nightmare of crying for help and shouting " We cannot take injustice no more!" to another nightmare of people wanting to gas American senators and politicians and bring Afro American senators and politicians to be hanged and lynched outside the capitol!
What does this tell us about hate? It tells us that evil never dies! Wanting to kill others is not only mentally ill, is also a form of extreme evil that is always unjustifiable and unnecessary!
Getting out of intense sessions of discussions and private groups for hours on end and getting into a Gala celebrating Virginia Black History month was a process of cooling off and at the same time of anticipating what I was about to see and I knew already that would be part of the "historical menu" of the Gala and this would be replete with pictures of torture instruments and people being photographed while having their teeth ripped off to make dentures or people exhibiting terrible marks as consequence of being victims of extreme torture and abuse because of slavery, abduction and being sold from owner to owner since their birth.
Passed that "historical photographic menu", there are people of today recounting their ancestors stories of suffering, loss, being separated from their parents , sold for goods, lent to other farmers, just exploited over and over again.
People who worked since childhood, were barred from everything like learning how to read , having a family and yet never got paid for their work.
Just imagine that the slaves were borrowed to other people to be exploited, to do their housework, fieldwork, masonry, building work, sex work, everything you can imagine and in-between tortured with horrible tools. Terrifying experience based on race!
Well, this is part of Virginia State History and will not go away!
I was blessed to have attended, blessed to hear from the descendants of these slaves who suffered immensely throughout their lives, and I am blessed to see much shinning future in the youth that honour their ancestors memory during this February, Black History Month in the US.
Do check them out and register for next year Gala! Let me tell you this, there were people watching from all over the country and all ethnicities, Hispanic, Chinese, etc.
Best wishes,
Ariane
