Sunday: Celebration of African culture

The roots of rhythm in African music will be brought to Portola Valley on Sunday with a celebration of African culture, art, food and people.

“Celebrate Africa!” will also mark the success of a young organization — the African Library Project — dedicated to creating community libraries and spreading literacy throughout Africa.

“Basically it’s going to be a big African party, with music, crafts and workshops where people can learn to drum and dance in the African style,” Chris Bradshaw, the group’s founder and president, said of the Sunday event, 4 to 7 p.m., to be held at the new Portola Valley Town Center, 765 Portola Road.

“At an African party in Africa there are no performers — everyone IS the party!” she said.

The event will also be a fundraising celebration for the library project, founded just five years ago by Bradshaw’s Portola Valley family after they returned from a pony-trekking trip to Lesotho, a tiny high-plateau nation within South Africa. They were captivated by the people and riveted by the poverty and need, and hunger for books.

“When our guide told me there was only one library in the entire country of Lesotho I couldn’t stop thinking about all the books clogging up our landfills in the U.S. and all the lost intellectual potential in Africa that could help solve their challenges,” she said. Bradshaw mentioned the library idea to some local community leaders before they returned home.

A month later she received a phone call from Lesotho informing her that “the building’s half done,” which came as something of a shock, or revelation.

“Oh, I guess I’m doing this,” she thought.

Bradshaw said her husband, Steve Levin, a leadership coach and organizational-development consultant, and son, Ben Levin, then 15 and a “voracious reader,” joined in the nonprofit venture — Ben even filled out the federal and state forms to create the nonprofit organization. Their daughter, Mariah Levin, 15, “has helped pack many libraries and currently is spreading the word about our Facebook Fan page,” Bradshaw said.

The library project idea took off, with a big push from Bradshaw.

It initially generated support from communities throughout the Midpeninsula, then spread nationally. In the past four years the project has helped establish 372 village and community libraries in eight nations. With book drives organized by schools, churches, organizations and individuals, the library project now sends full shipping containers of books to the nations involved. The project is currently active in four countries and plans to add more.

The project has reached deeply into Palo Alto, where Jordan Middle School has conducted seven book drives, Walter Hays Elementary three and Addison Elementary two. Palo Alto High School’s Global Literacy Club has held three drives, two Girl Scout troops have held one each, as has the First United Methodist Church. Two families have each held three book drives.

Palo Alto-based efforts alone have resulted in the creation of 24 libraries, stocking them with about 25,000 books, Bradshaw estimated.

“I’m truly in awe of Palo Altans’ initiative and generosity, not to mention their plethora of excess books,” she said. “The people of Palo Alto should be proud of their contribution to African literacy. Frankly, I don’t think they are aware of it.”

Neighboring communities have contributed numerous other libraries, along with communities, organizations, individuals and families across the nation, she said.

Members of the group’s 10-member board, most of whom have a depth of experience in Africa, will be cooking African food for the Sunday event.

From 4 to 5 p.m. and 6 to 7 p.m. there will be drumming and dancing with drum and dance lessons; African storytellers; the West African form of tie dying; mask making; African face and body painting; pounding grain with a wooden mortar and pestle; and carrying water on one’s head as millions of African women do daily.

A booth will show people how to organize a book drive, and people are invited to donate “gently used” children’s books from pre-school through 8th grade level.

At 6 p.m. project leaders will honor “Compassion in Action” award recipients from Georgia and Illinois; share letters from library users and partner organizations; discuss fundraising; and share an African feast.

Bradshaw said she has no idea how many people might show up Sunday, but guesstimates between 100 and 150.

“This is our first big fundraising event,” she said, noting that means she has nothing with which to compare possible turnout. She requests that those who plan to come sign up on the project’s website, www.africanlibraryproject.org, to help provide some advance idea of the turnout.