Black History Month

Rhythm & Blues Cambridge exists to promote respectful, inclusive cultural engagement by providing quality programs, education, and mentoring to the Black community in Cambridge, Ontario. We foster partnerships with community groups and provide activities and events to encourage growth and development in our community.

Through our Black Girl Excellence program, we empower youth to strive for excellence by teaching them about their great history, and help them to navigate their futures.

We are excited to have a brand new line-up of events for Black History Month February 2024. That being said, we celebrate Black history and culture 365 days a year. Click our “Events” tab to see the programming we offer throughout the year, including our BHM 2024 event line-up.

History of our Black History Month Events & Celebrations:

In the fall of 2019, a small group of women who have a passion for wellness & unity began to develop the Rhythm & Blues Commitee. We gathered resources, partnered with community groups, local businesses and individuals, & brought to life our goal for the first Black History Month event in Cambridge. We began to source out many local Black owned businesses to participate, wanting to make this event accessible to the community. In Feburary 2020, we partnered with Idea Exchange and were able to use their space at Queen’s Square for our first event where we had over 250 participants, a panel discussion, live music, dancers, food and coverage from the local news. We welcomed many dignitaries, there was so much support from the community! Please see our photo library below for some photos of our first in-person event.

Like the rest of the world, we had to pivot our plans for February 2021 as a result of the pandemic. Moving virtual didn’t slow us down, the Rhythm & Blues Committee planned a series of events to do over the month of February to reflect on the historical and contemporary struggles and triumphs of Black communities in Waterloo Region. We had online games, prizes from local businesses, our Black Girl Excellence Program was launched, we had a paint night with local Black artist Alana Deckert, an Afro-Tribal Dance workshop, and a lively panel discussion.

BHM 2022 was another incredible online celebration. We were excited to do a BHM food drive in partnership with the Cambridge Food Bank, partner with author Stephanie Duff for ‘Me and My Hair’ Storytime, offer two new Black Girl Excellence Programs featuring Selam Debs and Nicole Brown Faulkner, No Shame in my Flow Game Period Box Paint Night with Alana Decker and Changing the Flow, Black Rest and Wellness Yoga with Selam Debs, a poet experience ft. Sherice, and a youth panel titled “raising the bar when youth speak”.

We are looking forward to the upcoming events, programs and activities we have planned for February 2023, and throughout the year. Please visit our ‘events’ tab, and follow us on Instagram @rhythmandbluescambridge to stay up-to-date with the work we are doing.