By Tricia Hall
The Truth Reporter
The Toledo Lucas County Public Library (TLCPL) collaborated with Welcome Toledo-Lucas County (TLC), Women of Toledo (WOT) and SAME Café Toledo to celebrate Black History. The February 10 event was held at the downtown library inside of the café.
“Thank you for coming here today,” began Mely Arribas-Douglas, TLC Specialists. “Today we’re celebrating black history.”
“At Women of Toledo our mission is to educate, engage and empower,” began Sierra Ortiz, WOT Associate Director. “We’re happy to be here, volunteer and partner today. We support programs like this that are important to the community.”
The Café was filled to capacity as guests enjoyed the meal prepared by renown Chef Mae Merveilles Tshitenge, who prepared authentic Congolese cuisine. Guests dined on famed coleslaw, aromatic rice, mouthwatering mikate, flavorful tshake madesu and succulent grilled chicken.
“Thank you. Thank you,” said Chef Mae. “I want to thank my team. Thank you to Café Chef Schmidtke and your team. Thank you to each of you for coming out here today and hope you will enjoy this meal.”
In addition to preparing the meal, Chef Mae completed a cooking demonstration and answered audience questions.
The library’s Black History plan is called the BIG IDEA (Build, Improve, Grow with Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Access). The remaining Black History programs by branch:
- Kent, Vintage Collection Sneakers on Feb. 15 and 22, 5:00pm-6pm
- King, Summer of Soul film screening on Feb. 17 from 2:00pm-4:00pm; Small Town Pride Book Blub on Feb. 26 from 6:30pm-7:30pm
- Lagrange, Black Boy Joy, Feb. 20 5:30pm-6:30pm
- Main, Black History Month for Kids, Feb. 17, 2:00pm-3:00pm
- Mott, Step into Black History, Feb. 23, 3:30pm-5:00pm
- West Toledo, Poonam Dance on Feb 20 from 4:00pm-5:00pm; Simple as Water film screening on Feb. 23 from 1:00pm-3:00pm; and An Afternoon with Little Amal on Feb. 24 from 2:00pm-5:00pm.
