Celebrating Ms. Naima Richmond

2027 West Broadway Avenue,Minneapolis MN 55411

07 May, 2022

Description

Ms. Naima is moving to Virginia! Join us as we celebrate her contributions to our community! Please RSVP by registering here. Celebrating Ms. Naima RichmondFor the past 70 years, Ms. Naima Richmond has called Minneapolis home. She raised her family here, and she has enriched our community as a mother, poet, storyteller, and community activist. Ms. Naima has enjoyed many adventures in her lifetime, and at the end of May 2022 she will embark on a new adventure when she moves to Richmond, Virginia, to make a new home with her daughter Pam. I first met Ms. Naima in early 2007 when I joined the Plymouth Christian Youth Center's staff as its first Capri Theater Director. During my 7.5 years at the Capri, Ms. Naima was an active member of our Capri Theater Community Advisory Council. She rarely missed a community event at the theater. I treasure our friendship! When Ms. Naima shared the news of her upcoming departure from Minneapolis, the former theater director in me said: "We need a community celebration!" Special thanks to Plymouth Christian Youth Center and the Capri Theater team for enthusiastically offering the Paradise Community Hall for this gathering to celebrate Ms. Naima. Please join us! The Open House will run from 2 to 5 pm for conversation, refreshments, and music. We also invite you to share your tributes to this amazing Elder at 3 pm. Ms. Naima's books and artwork will be available for purchase at this event. If you have a few minutes, scroll down and enjoy these press and video clips featuring Ms. Naima! Karl Reichert Contact: [email protected] or (612) 708-5275 Community Celebration of PlaceUsing Oral History, Music & Art to Strengthen Communities & Foster Reconciliation (2008)https://www.communitycelebration.org/elder/richmond Joy and awe as a dream comes true(Star Tribune: January 20, 2009) As the time for Obama to take the oath neared, Doyle and Ballard stood near their 76-year-old bus companion, Naima Richmond. The three leaned on one another, bracing for the moment. Aretha Franklin took the stage and started singing: "My country, 'tis of thee." Doyle broke into tears. When Obama rose to place his hand on the same Bible that Abraham Lincoln used, Richmond, a longtime Minneapolis activist, also shed tears. The crowd quieted to hear the new president say the final words "So help me God," and then erupted in screams. Doyle put her arm around Richmond and whispered: "We're actually here. That's what's so unbelievable. We never thought we would live to see this day." "I can't believe it," Richmond replied. "You know, if I were to die tomorrow, I can say, 'I witnessed this.''' https://www.startribune.com/joy-and-awe-as-a-dream-comes-true/37945859/ Community Celebration of PlaceUsing Oral History, Music & Art to Strengthen Communities & Foster Reconciliation (2008)https://www.communitycelebration.org/elder/richmond Naima Richmond Poet, Storyteller and Community Activist My name is Naima Richmond. I was born August 20th, 1932, in a small town called Milon, Georgia. When I was very young my mother separated from my father and we moved to Atlanta, Georgia. Growing up we were very poor. We lived in a house that had big planks on the floor instead of carpeting or linoleum. Our yard did not have grass and we had to sweep the dirt to keep the trash off of the yard. I remember going to school with cardboard soles in my shoes because they had worn out and we couldn't afford to buy new shoes. We didn't have a lot of toys. So we had to make believe we had toys. In the summer we found old planks and a ball and those planks became our bats to play baseball. In the winter the city would block off the streets so we could skate. We only had two pair of skates and there were four of us. So the four of us had to share those two pairs of skates and take turns. We had to make believe and improvise with a lot of our toys. I went to a segregated school in Atlanta called David T. Howard. It was named after the first black embalmer in Atlanta, Georgia. The books were in such bad condition because when we got them they had gone to about four or five other schools before they got to our school. But we learned from those tattered books. They helped to produce doctors, lawyer, preachers, teachers and blue-collar workers. Dr. Martin Luther King and I went to the same school. He was four grades ahead of me and, although he would not have known me personally, as children we would say “hello” in passing. I also went to Ebenezer Baptist Church and many Sundays I heard his father, Reverend Martin Luther King, Sr. preach. When I got on the streetcar one day, my mother took me by my hand and said, "You can't sit there," and she pointed to sign on the streetcar: "Colored at the back of streetcar." I didn’t understand. Why should I have to get off of my seat and let someone else have it because of the color of my skin? There were some streetcars that we could not even get on. We would stand and wait for a streetcar to come and it would come and say, "White only" on it and we couldn't get on. I just felt that no one should have to go through this regardless of who they are. I came to Minneapolis in 1952, because my husband was stationed here at a place called Wold-Chamberlain Air Force Base. We were supposed to be here for only two months but I'm still here. I have three daughters and one son, and now five grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. My favorite memory with my kids growing up was all of the fun things we did together. We would bake together, go to the Walker Art Center and go to the library for reading hours. Every Friday night we’d stay up late because they didn't have to get up the next morning. So as a treat we would have popcorn and hot dogs. When I came to Minneapolis, I was appalled to know that there was no hot lunch school program for elementary school kids. Years later there were people in the community wanting to know what were some of the things that we would like to help change. I suggested a hot lunch program for our elementary school kids. I went around with the committee in the north side of Minneapolis to get people to sign a petition for a hot lunch program. We took it down to the Board of Education and that was the beginning of hot lunch school programs in Minneapolis. I have done a lot of traveling. I was in China for nine days for the United Nation's Fourth World Conference on Women. I wrote a paper on the power of poetry and women’s rights and won a scholarship to go to the conference from the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. I have also been to Africa twice. In Africa it was overwhelming because I felt like I had gone back from whence I came. There was a sense of joy at the beauty as well as a sense of sadness because of the poverty. Ms. Naima with Capri Theater General Manager Kevin West (left) and Dennis Spears, Capri Artistic Associate and Director of Legends @ the Capri in the Paradise Community Hall during the retirement party for Anne Long (PCYC Executive Director) in August 2021.