Celebrating Black History Month

February is Black History Month, so I decided to theme our monthly dinner around amazing African-Americans that have influenced our history in film, sports, politics, and just life in general.  From Muhammad Ali and Jesse Owens to Kobe Bryant in sports and Martin Luther King Jr. to Amanda Gorman in inspirational speeches and writing, it was neat to celebrate America by incorporating as many names as I could into our evening meal and details.

Invite: I designed the invite with black, red, yellow, and green as these are the colors associated with Black History Month.  I added a few photos of some African-Americans that are inspirational to me to the invite as well.

Party Details: As stated above, I tried to creatively link the names of famous African-Americans in our culture to party details.  For the napkin, I focused on Thurgood Marshall.  Thurgood Marshall was the Supreme Court's first African-American justice, so for my "Supreme" napkin, I made sure to note that tethe napkin was Thur(oughly)good to Marshall a mess.  A bit cheesy I know, but it's the thought that counts!

For my wine labels, I designed a label for red wine and one for white.  

For the white wine label, we celebrated Barry White an American singer and songwriter. I altered the title of his hit song, "Can't Get Enough of Your Love Baby" to be "Can't Get Enough of White Wine Baby."

For the red wine, I celebrated Ida B. Wells a journalist and leader in the civil rights movement.  The label read "Ida B. Wells (I'd be well) if you'd give me a glass of red wine."

Menu:  It was quite a challenge to come up with a menu, but also fun.  Again because of COVID, my menu needed to be packaged in to-go containers and easy for my guests to pick up and then eat at home/reheat if necessary.

I started with a green salad I called Muhammad Ali's Knockout Salad.  It was romaine lettuce, grape tomatoes, sunflower seeds, sliced black olives, and cheese.  I sliced the cheese and cut boxing gloves out of it by hand for the "knockout."  Along with the salad, I served breadsticks I named Jackie Robinson's Bread Bats.

For the main dish, I made a chicken with rose wine. It was delicious!  I called this dish Cicely Tyson chicken with Rose Parks wine. Cecily Tyson was a famous actress who only recently passed away.  Rosa Parks was civil rights activist.

For sides, I served mashed potatoes and broccoli.  I titled these Malcolm X-cellent potatoes and Barack-oli Obama.

For dessert, I made angel food cake that I packaged with blueberries and sliced strawberries.  I called this Maya Angel-foud for Maya Angelou (love her writing), and I called the fruit MLK's "dreamy" toppings.

Favor:  I really enjoyed Amanda Gorman's reading of her poem at the inauguration, and I decided to incorporate some of her words into my monthly dinner.  I purchased mason jar candle holders from the dollar store and put a tealight inside.  I created a sticker for the front with the last lines of Gorman's poem. "There is always light. If only we're brave enough to see it; if only we are brave enough to be it."  This is a great message for our world.

I was happy to celebrate these Americans for Black History Month.  There are so many of people who are influential in Americans growth.  I hope you enjoyed this post!  Thank you for reading.