This year’s theme for the Hickory Street Harambee is the same as last year and every year before.  It is all about “togetherness.”

“All we are doing to trying to bring the community together with food and entertainment,” said Fred McDonald, the secretary of the Hickory Street Harambee Executive Committee.  “We have a basketball tournament going inside the gymnasium in the school.  It’s all about getting together as a community and having fun.”

The eighth annual festival of all things African American, the Hickory Street Harambee brings together, or “pulls together” in the original Swahili, vendors and non-profit groups to highlight the things that make the African American culture of Springfield different and exciting.

“Every year we are trying to be better and better. It takes a lot of work,” McDonald said.

But that hard work is paying off with an expanding list of vendors and displays on the school playground, including products and services from within the Springfield community. A brief count Sunday indicated at least 60 separate vendors set up around the field.

Originally, Harambee was started by members of the Brethren, a group of black men involved with the civil rights movement. Raymond Jordan, Bud Williams, Mo Jones, Bruce King, Justin and Margery Hurst and Robert “Cee” Jackson among others launched the celebration of Black culture of the time. The original Harambee continued well into the 1980s before it faded.

Leapfrogging to the mid-teens of the new century, the Hickory Street Harambee started as a reunion of neighborhood buddies.

Jenal Rentas said the name of the celebration had to be changed from the original.

“It’s a funny story,” he said. “This started out just a bunch of guys who grew up in the Hickory Street neighborhood getting together, but it got so big we decided to bring it back as the Harambee.”

The name stuck even after the event moved to the Catherine Street location.

The original Harambee was a special time for many kids growing up in Springfield, the highlight of the summer, and Committee President Veronica McNair said she hopes the Hickory Street Harambee becomes the stuff of children’s memories in the future.

To hear “Cee” Jackson. One of the original founders, tell it, McNair and her committee hit the nail on the head.

“This is awesome,” he said.  “They have continued the original thing. We did for 30 years and now Mis VG has brought it back. The people have been waiting for the past twenty years for it to come back. She is doing an awesome job.”

Gospel music filled the athletic fields behind the Rebecca M. Johnson School on Catherine Street Sunday afternoon, probably the perfect day for the word of God, Rev. Will Naylor of the Holy Redeemer Cathedral allowed.

Naylor officiated Sunday’s Gospel concert with a complete lineup of acts throughout the afternoon.

Besides Naylor himself singing praises, the lineup included Archbishop Timothy Paul, TJ Haynes and the Voices of Praise, Emotions praise Dancers, Abi Robles. Pastor Collins, Minister of Reconciliation, and Vanessa Ford.

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