Abusua and Afrikan Heritage House are launching Oberlin's biannual Kuumba week on Saturday. Swahili for "creativity," Kuumba week is a "celebration of black creativity in whatever vein it occurs," said sophomore Andrea Clark, a member of the committee that organized the week's events.

"I expect that Kuumba week will be a time for a joyous celebration and communion, an opportunity in which everybody can really enjoy black creativity and what it's really about," said senior Takeisha Hall, chair of the Kuumba Committee.

Added Clark, "This is an opportunity for the black community to share several different aspects of its being with the larger community."

This week's theme is "Shaping our Purpose through Presence, Persistence, and Power". The week will be kicked off with a poetry reading on the state of today's youth by Kevin Powell, author of In the Tradition and Anthology of Young Writers and member of MTV's first "The Real World."

Other events will include performances by black conservatory students, readings by Zami, Oberlin's organization for gay, lesbian and bisexual black students, and Abusua's NiaPoetics; as well as a performance by Essence Dance group.

Also scheduled are a soul breakfast, a showing of the film "Sainkofa," a Hunger Week public forum on Poverty and the Black Community, a Kuumba Talent night at the `Sco, and a presentation of artwork done by children attending the Shule Yekosho school at which some Abusua members mentor and tutor.

The week will culminate in a semi-formal dance featuring jazz music from the 1920s, to be held at North's Starlight Lounge.