First Annual Greater Houston Urban Garden Festival

Dear Community Member,

Divine Leaders Incorporated is proud to host The First Annual Marcus Garvey Liberation Garden Festival. This historic event will be take place at our garden on Saturday, August 21, 2010 on two and a half acres of land located immediately to the right of The Shrine Cultural and Event Center.

This is a celebration for many wonderful reasons! First, we will pay homage to the Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey, who was born on August 17, 2010, and whose Universal Negro Improvement Association’s “Africa for the Africans” campaign gave Black people hope for a better tomorrow in the early 1900’s. In addition, we will also be celebrating the community’s involvement with this project via multiple community awareness activities, including live performances and presentations from local independent music and visual artists of varying genres.

Other community awareness activities will include presentations on healthy lifestyles and emergency preparedness strategies for families. The intent will be to encourage parents and children to make transitions from a less stressful way of living to a more sustainable, healthy way of living. To aid in the reaching of this goal, an emphasis will be placed on creating an awareness, preparation, and evacuation plan for any disaster – manmade or natural.

Moreover, this event will also mark the beginning of The Ujamaa Marketplace. Ujamaa is a Kiswahili word, which means “cooperative economics.” The Ujamaa Marketplace will demonstrate cooperative economics by featuring local vendors for festival-goers from which to patronize as well as opportunities to promote their respective businesses and associated organizations.

Lastly, this event is to celebrate and raise funds for the harvests of the Marcus Garvey Liberation Garden. This is the first full season the garden that has flourished enough to benefit the community through the growth and distribution of organic foods to both the volunteers who assisted as well as to local community households in need.

Your attendance, participation, and support of this event would be greatly appreciated.

Yours in the struggle,

Cavanaugh Nweze

Divine Leaders Inc., COO