A celebration four centuries in the making.

Our logo places a sunflower where a letter would normally be. It is not decoration.  It is a symbol of what it means to be "Black."  It is a representation of the strength, wisdom, resourcefulness and resilience of our people.  We thank social media influencer @AshleytheeBarroness for her imagery.

A sunflower grows tall and strong regardless of the soil in which it is planted.  It puts down deep roots before it ever shows a bloom, and grows in ground most plants could not survive.  As it grows, a young sunflower follows the sun — turning toward the light as the sun crosses the sky throughout the day.  At night, in the dark with no guidance, the young sunflower turns back east, prepared to meet the sun again in the morning.

A mature sunflower stops turning.  It remains steady and steadfast, facing east toward the sun and drawing five times more bees.  It becomes the meeting place.  The place where everyone gathers and feels welcomed.  As it continues to mature, the sunflower's head grows heavy — from the weight of the thousands of seeds it has made and packed inside in a perfect spiral — and it bows.

Like the sunflower, our people have continued building, planting and finding joy in soil that was never made to nourish them: turning toward the light as a discipline, not a mood.  We ask that every parade and festival participant include the sunflower in its presentation in honor of our ancestors.

About our logo:  In our logo, the gold of the sunflower's bloom is our ancestors and the knowledge, culture, craft and skill they brought with them from Africa across the Atlantic. The green is the wealth that their knowledge, skill and bodies helped build for a nation that tried to break them and has never compensated or even apologized for it. The red, white, and blue banner beneath is that nation our ancestors helped build — OUR nation, that we rightfully claim as our own.