Little Red School House
and Elisabeth Irwin High School

A Pre-K-12 Progressive Education

Our Program

Our Principals' Blog

Karamu at 20, a thank you note

Phil Kassen

Dear LREI Community,

I hope this note finds you well. Last Friday LREI hosted the 20th Anniversary Karamu, our annual celebration of our multicultural community. Thank you to the committee that organized the event, one with a number of parts - the delicious potluck meal and the joyous celebration featuring three amazing performances, among them. Karamu is a spirited gathering. The students are excited to be in the building, to be with their friends, and to attend a big party. They know that good and important things are coming their way. Karamu begins with a potluck. Families bring dishes that reflect their cultures and values, made with the love and care of generations, and we receive them with gratitude and grace. After dinner, it’s off to the Performing Arts Center for a variety of amazing performances. Over the 20 years (!) of Karamu we have enjoyed song and dance, story-telling and athletic feats, and so much more, from dozens of cultures. We are so grateful for the generosity of the performers, sharing their talents and traditions with us.

Karamu is a time when food and the arts bring a diverse community closer together. The power of a meal made with care and expertise and artistic expression, honed over years of practice, all shared with love, with pride, and with hope. Time and time again, year after year, we have been moved by the combination of the giving of one’s self and the accepting of the gift of another’s talents and culture.

How does this moment of honesty and openness translate into deeper understanding and respect, into a shared sense of responsibility and compassion? How does this joyous celebration encourage us to be just as generous and graceful with those we don’t know and feel somewhat distant from as we are with those we share some affinity? I think that these were the founding goals. Eat, drink, and celebrate and then we can work and live together with a greater level of respect and admiration. Food and culture serving as an easy to navigate on-ramp. I believe this is still true, or can be.

We see this succeed with your children. Visit each others’ homes in the 4s and we will have a better understanding of where we each are coming from, what we have in common, how we differ. A parent peer shares a celebration or tradition in class and we all gain a window into your life. At potlucks and class celebrations, share a favorite delicacy and we can join in the wonders of your beliefs. Read a book, study a text, hear a speech by a representative of an identity other than our own, and we can learn to connect intellectually. Practice these skills and habits over the course of 14 years and we grow into people who go out into the world each day seeing opportunity rather than obstruction.

Go out into the world with a sense that the first move is to support, to show compassion, to hold, and to share a sense that life can be hard and we have to have each others’ backs, as no matter what we bring to a potluck, no matter what songs we sing, in our hearts, in our heads, in whatever you believe to occupy the place of a soul, we all want the same things - love, peace, a better life for our children; to help, to support, and to celebrate.

This is the promise of Karamu, an event that is filled with hope and that is a true expression of LREI’s mission. I am grateful to the dozens and dozens of community members who have created and enlivened it over 20 years and to the hundreds, maybe thousands, who have joined in this joyous celebration.

Please enjoy this short video about this wonderful LREI tradition.