Event Could Spark Cultural Identity

Published: Aug 10, 2007

Outstanding cultural events help define the character of communities - consider the impact of the Christmas stroll and Kumquat Festival on the Dade City scene. Such events require planning, organization and an understanding of people's needs.

Saturday marks a significant step in providing a cultural identity for Dade City's black community. Can the community create a niche that will draw people from surrounding communities for quality cultural events? Claudia Lynn Thomas, the first black female orthopedic surgeon in the country, will be on hand to sign copies of her autobiography, "God Spare Life." The event is scheduled for 5 p.m. at St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church, 14518 Seventh St. in Dade City.

Cultural niches are built upon collaboration. In addition to the author, Saturday's event will include a dramatic presentation of James Weldon Johnson's poem "The Creation" by students from high schools in Dade City and Brooksville. Janaysha Brown, a Pasco High School sophomore, will perform a praise dance.

Jasmine Johnson, Miss Kwanzaa, will recite the popular Marianne Williamson poem "Our Greatest Fears."

"I am really excited about participating in the event. To meet a role model like Dr. Claudia is a special treat," the Pasco High School junior said.

Organizers hope the event will prove a draw with young people.

In 2004, Claudia joined two former mentees in a private practice in Central Florida and still maintains her faculty position at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She has been credited with increasing the number of black residents and female residents serving on the Hopkins faculty.

According to event organizer Andrea Colbert, Claudia is a better model for young girls than Paris Hilton, Nicole Richie or Lindsay Lohan.

At least 50 members of the Lucas family, who met Claudia at their reunion last month, are expected Saturday.

Quida White and her Girl Scout troop will be on hand to accept a donation from Claudia, a former Girl Scout herself. Those little Brownies and Girl Scouts will benefit from mixing with others in the community.

"It has to be a self-esteem booster to the girls," White said. "That is what the organization is about: building women of courage and character."

There will be a plea to support Indian Pond Cemetery, the historic burial ground outside Dade City. Donations will help pay for the private cemetery's upkeep.

Claudia deserves to be the guest of honor. This gifted black woman has a history of fighting against daunting odds. In her late teens, she and several other sisters demanded that Vassar College, the elite girls college in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., hire black faculty and add black studies as a major by taking over and occupying the administration building for three days.

She eventually did major in black studies. Her senior thesis was about how sickle cell anemia, a blood disorder that affects people of African decent, was affecting people in Poughkeepsie before the disease became well-known.

From Vassar, she headed to Johns Hopkins Medical School, then did her residency at Yale University. She completed a fellowship in trauma at the University of Maryland.

She has appeared in Ebony and Black Enterprise magazines and on the Hour of Power TV show.

Life has not been a bed of roses for Claudia. In 1969, at the age of 19, she learned she needed a kidney transplant. Her sister Catherine gave her one of hers. Her life was again spared in 1989 when she and her former husband rode out Hurricane Hugo in their St. Thomas home in the Virgin Islands.

As the old folks say, "She has seen the rough side of the mountain."

Dade City needs a strong black American cultural presence. Maybe Claudia is the magnet who will pull ideas, talents, skills, people, cultures and dreams together to create the next Kumquat Festival. Time will tell. In the meantime, remember, "God Spare Life."

Imani Asukile, a Hernando County native, is a longtime Dade City resident and one of the founders of the African American Heritage Society of East Pasco. His column appears every other Friday. To suggest a future column, e-mail him at idasukile @yahoo.com.