Sacramento residents recognized at Inaugural Malcolm X festival. Honored for decades of service

Dana Maeshia awarded six Black community members the first ever Malcolm X Self-Determination Award at the Inaugural Malcolm X Festival, on what would have been the late activist’s 96th birthday.

The Sacramento honorees were said to have exuded principles of self determination and group economics, for more than a decade in Sacramento’s predominantly Black neighborhoods.

The festival was a free community event organized by Dana Maeshia owner of All Things Literacy, a Black owned bookstore in south Sacramento and Berry Accius owner of Black BluePrintz

“When we see a figure, who was once a part of the problem and then turned around and changed his life to become the solution, how are we not celebrating that empowerment,” said Accius.

It was important for Accius and his business partner, Dana Maeshia, to utilize the festival as an opportunity to highlight the principles in which Malcolm X stood for.

The Malcolm X Self-Determination honors were awarded to Zion Taddese, Judith and Chanowk Yisrael, Brother Ra, Shonna McDaniels, Berry Accius, and Barbara Range.

Range is the owner of Brickhouse Art Gallery in Oak Park and is a well-known community advocate.

“It’s very humbling,” said Range. “This was something that was very unexpected for me because I’m one of those people that just enjoys being behind the scenes, co-building and co-creating with the community so today’s a huge honor for me.”

The other winners have been movers and shakers in the Sacramento area for years. Taddese is the owner of Queen Sheba, an Ethopian-style restaurant and event space, and founder of Sheba Farms.

Judith and Chanowk Yisrael own Yisrael Family Urban Farm, located in South Oak Park, where they have used agriculture to cultivate community engagement.

McDaniels is the founder of the Sojourner Truth Heritage Museum in Florin Square.

Accius, a mentor for the youth, was a recipient of the award for his valued work in the community, and his focus on Black empowerment.

Brother Ra is the founder of the African Marketplace who just reached seven years of business. He has brought together and uplifted many Black owned businesses over the years. He created Sankofa workshops in Sacramento’s Black communities.

Families from all over Sacramento and beyond gathered for a day of empowerment discussion, and food from small Black owned businesses. There were vendors who came from as far as Reno to be a part of the city’s first festival for Malcolm X.

One of those vendors is Cynthia Swift, a member of The Black Panther Party of Nevada. Swift had a booth filled with historical portraits, recordings, and books on Malcolm X and other Black revolutionary leaders.

“I love Malcolm X and some of the things that he was for,” said Swift. “I understand how it feels to have people around you that don’t feel good about themselves.”

There was also a live performance by rap artist and musician, Tef Poe.

Tef Poe is an activist from St. Louis, Missouri. He is the co-founder of the Hands Up Movement, a Ferguson-based social movement formed after the murder of Michael Brown in 2014.

“A lot of people don’t know a lot about the Black community in Sacramento. It’s a very resilient Black community, very artistic, very swagged out, very revolutionary, very Pan African,” said Tef Poe. “It’s just got a good energy, man, like the pro-Black movement out here has a real solid, nice energy to it.”

Bringing together Black communities in Sacramento

The inaugural festival was held at 1913 -- a new Black-owned entertainment space in North Sacramento. The space hosts events such as live bands, poetry slams, or comedy shows.

Co-owner of 1913, Musa Ecclesiastes, says knowing the reputation of Maeshia and Accius made hosting the festival an easy decision -- as it turned out to be a great success.

“We teamed up with Berry and Dana because they are pillars of the community,” said Ecclesiastes. “In reality, they do a lot of different things for the community.”

Just as society honors Dr. Martin Luther King, it was important for Maeshia to continue to fulfill the legacy of Malcolm X, driving toward economic and educational investment for Black communities.

“I believe that Malcolm too is worthy and he deserves it. He stood on his principles, he never wavered from wanting us to have equality and self-determination,” said Maeshia.

This story was originally published June 3, 2021 at 12:19 PM.