To celebrate Black History Month, the Wesley Foundation, located at 201 College Street in Ruston, is hosting a Black Arts Fest from 6-9 p.m. Friday, Feb. 11.
Camellia Jiles, missionary intern at Wesley, said this event is one of many the Wesley has hosted because of the importance of the subject matter.
“Christianity is not separate from doing events like this,” Jiles said. “Doing something like this is bringing people closer to God and sharing the love of God in a lot of significant ways. It makes people feel included and loved — that’s the work Christians should do.”
To celebrate black history, Jiles said the Wesley’s weekly service on Tuesdays has included inviting black preachers to come speak and using homilies from an African American lectionary as part of its communion service. This arts fest is simply another way to celebrate black culture.
“This isn’t something that we’re tacking on because it’s Black History Month — it’s something we think is needed, for the community and for the body of Christ in general,” Jiles said. “We’ve been talking about how important it is to spread God’s joy and to celebrate. This is something we think is very important for the church to do.”
The arts fest, Jiles said, is a visual and performing arts celebration of black culture.
“We thought it would be a life giving and joyful thing to celebrate,” she said. “For the past five years, we’ve had race talks to discuss how to address racism in church. This year we’ve transitioned into a celebration because we felt that’s what our community needed at the time. We needed something centered on joy.”
Visual and performing artists are still welcome to sign up to show their work or perform by contacting Jiles at 318-820-4719.
This event is free and open to the public.
