brer rabbit day 2011

On May 1, 2011 I teamed up with Lloyd & Hillary of Breadstuy, my favorite local coffee shop to do this score about my favorite fictional black holiday. It goes:

“Celebrate Brer Rabbit Day”

 

 

To kick it off, I made up 8 tall tales about Brer Rabbit Day’s origin, including:

Started by a group of AME school teacher s in the early 1980’s, Brer Rabbit Day was created to protest the commercialization of one of the church’s most sacred holidays, Easter.  Unable to convince the children to give up their candy baskets and chocolate bunnies, the teachers designed a secular holiday, Brer Rabbit Day, on which the children could indulge in Easter bunny related crafts and sweets while celebrating their cultural heritage.

and

Brer Rabbit Day is a black cultural holiday of Ghanian origin. The first official Brer Rabbit Day was declared in 2003 by the local government of Accra to celebrate the wave of Afro-Americans who had “returned home” to become official citizens of Ghana.

or maybe

Brer Rabbit Day is a fictitious holiday created by Langston Hughes as part of the Simple stories. Simple, who is unable to buy his sweetheart an Easter basket until pay day, makes up the holiday to explain why he cannot buy her candy until the Sunday after Easter, Brer Rabbit Day. She initially falls for the ruse, but later dumps him when she catches him coming out of another woman’s apartment with a plate of leftovers on Easter.

 

 

Here’s what folks at our Brer Rabbit Day celebration had to say

Actually, none of the above are true… it’s my favorite fictional black holiday, which means you are free to make up your own story, like Sacha did

Hope you’ll DIY next Brer Rabbit Day!

xoxo,

Ai