Violet's Village

We are an arts and education program for youth ages 5-13. Founded by Raffini a Rhode Island Black Storyteller, writer, director and artist. To give children pride in their story, culture and identity by connecting with their ancestral history.

We want to change people's lives, by changing their thoughts, minds and understandings. To give African American children a sense of belonging, while helping them to understand that they are not stupid! For centuries, we have been told that our ancestors were not intelligent enough to write. Therefore, we didn't have any written history. Only to learn that we have books written by black people that are thousand years old in the libraries of Timbuktu! Also to find that Timbuktu is name after a woman name "Buktu"! This information was kept and hidden from us. I am a child of the 60's and 70's and I heard this often from teachers, councilors and others who should have been encouraging me but only armed with discouraging thoughts and remarks. I teach the youths about the vast knowledge of their ancestors and that they are directly decended from those who held all this knowledge and taught people from other countries who flocked to Africa to learn from its scholars. We plant seeds! In March, we physically plant vegetable seeds in the ground. Then we begin teaching about pride and Africa. The food will be grown and sent home with participants as well as sharing with and feeding the community. In all, we teach the importance of knowing your history, sharing it with others in a loving way, and how to take that new love of understanding and taking care of the most vulnerable people of our community.