"Kumbuka" is an annual literary event held in celebration of Black History Month in Detroit, MI.

Kumbuka, which is the Swahili word for “remember,” is a space created and curated by Kaylan Waterman in order to gather and remember our departed ancestors, but in a spirit of the jubilation we deserve after so much suffering. Each year, Waterman invites 10-12 Black luminaries are invited to read the posthumous work of African American authors, orators, and poets, honoring our past while celebrating our future by keeping our ancestors near through the words they left behind.

This event series was strongly influenced by the murders of....

Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, and Michael Brown in 2014.

And later...

Alton Sterling & Philando Castile in 2016.

In 2015, The Guardian released an article stating that, in that year alone, 1,134 Black men had been killed by police in the United States, making young Black men nine times as likely to die at the hands of police than any other demographic in America.

And still... we need spaces to celebrate how far we have come.

This article made a profound impact on the curator and is part of why Kumbuka began the following year, in 2016.

Each year since then, between 100-120 people attend the annual event to share in this deeply meaningful experience.