It was a day of artists and activists, politicians and preachers, and of tears and laughter as hundreds came together at Mt. Ararat Baptist Church in Larimer to celebrate the life and mourn the death of Nelson Mandela.
The three-hour event was sponsored by the Pittsburgh Black Political Convention, The A. Phillip Randolph Institute, The United Steelworkers and TransAfrica, whose chairman, actor Danny Glover, gave the keynote address.
Glover, who has portrayed Mandela and who knew him personally, told the audience that the struggles for economic and social justice Mandela fought for are still going on today.
“Mandela would have been there, he would have,” he said. “And he is with us today just as forcefully as when he walked this planet and breathed this air.”
In addition to Glover, the event featured performances by Elie Kihonia and the UBUNTU African Drummers and Dancers, bass player Dwayne Dolphin, The Mt. Ararat Choir and hip-hop artist Jasiri X.
Former city councilman and activist Sala Udin, who worked with the local anti-apartheid movement in the 1970s, quoted poet Maya Angelou, “No sun outlasts its own sunset, but it will rise again and bring the dawn.”
County Executive Rich Fitzgerald and U.S. Attorney David Hickton also spoke, as did representatives from the United Steelworkers, the Allegheny County Labor Council and a diverse group of clergy including Rev. Tom Smith of Monumental Baptist Church, Rabbi Danni Aaron of the Jewish Community Center, and Mt. Ararat’s own pastor Rev. Dr. William Curtis.
