For artist Dwayne Glapion, art and Kwanzaa are intertwined.
Glapion, a Denver-based artist born in New Jersey, said he sees Kwanzaa as symbolizing community and celebration. Those beliefs and celebrations trickle into his art, which was a constant for him during life’s struggles.
“The patterns and the African colors that come out during Kwanzaa are just inspiring and beautiful and gorgeous and have stories attached to them,” Glapion said. “You see the cultural influence, even from different cultures into different countries. Those are the types of things artists love: patterns, bright colors, the story and the headwraps and the jewelry and the drums, it just makes for a beautiful thing to capture.”
Kwanzaa is the annual celebration of African-American and Pan-African culture that runs from Dec. 26 to Jan. 1, established in 1966 by activist Maulana Karenga. Kwanzaa is a seven-day celebration of culture, and each day adheres to one of seven core principles, or the Nguzo Saba. Those principles are: umoja (unity), kujichagulia (self-determination), ujima (collective work and responsibility), ujamaa (cooperative economics), nia (purpose), kuumba (creativity) and imani (faith), according to the Official Kwanzaa website.
Kwanzaa is often celebrated by lighting seven candles in a kinara. A black candle, representing the Black people, is in the center, bookended by three red candles and three green candles. The red candles represent the struggle of Black Americans, or the bloodshed in that struggle, and the green candles represent the earth, according to source material from the holiday’s founder, Karenga.
Karenga releases an annual message during Kwanzaa, and last year, titled “Celebrating Kwanzaa in Difficult and Demanding Times,” he said that the candle-lighting ceremony highlights the moral principles that are “vital to life, love and struggle and to bringing, increasing and sustaining good in the world.”
“To lift up the light that lasts is not only to wish for the good they bring when practiced, but also to commit and recommit ourselves to practice them in the small and larger circles of our lives, our work and struggle,” Karenga said in the message.
One of the seven principles, Kuumba (creativity), asks celebrators to leave the community more beautiful and beneficial than it was inherited. This principle comes through art, like Glampion’s works, and through the holiday’s clothing — a hallmark of Kwanzaa’s impact on art. The holiday spawns dresses, shirts, scarves and hats that all use colors and patterns inspired by and representative of African culture.
Capturing Kwanzaa through other artistic mediums may not be as overt as Christmas or Hanukkah, though there are plenty of visual callbacks to the red, black and green that harken back to the holiday, but the essence of the holiday is peppered throughout other creations. In music, depending on who you ask, anything from Stevie Wonder’s “Misrepresented People” to Yasiin Bey’s “UMI Says” to Kendrick Lamar’s “Alright” fit the holiday’s bill.
“Being able to embrace and find and express that heritage, that culture, the lessons learned and why you’re celebrating it 365 days a year is beautiful,” Glapion said. “The whole purpose of art, for me, is being able to explore myself, my emotions, my feelings and the world around me. Whether Kwanzaa is the motivator or Fourth of July is the motivator or another holiday is the motivator — in the end, it is self-expression.”
Glapion sees the symbology and freedom of expression of the holiday through art. The paintings and creations of Paul Goodnight, a Boston artist whose images have appeared in television and in film since 1984, capture the holiday’s essence, in Glapion’s eyes.
In Karenga’s 2024 message, while lighting the candle of Kuumba, or creativity, he said that celebrators are called “to do always as much as we can in the way we can in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it.”
Kwanzaa’s principles trickle into Glapion’s own work, he said. The gallery of his digital drawings showcases Black icons such as Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X and Miles Davis. In addition, his piece “The Boogie Men” has four young Black boys confronted by ominous people donning gas masks. “Pain, Prayer and Perseverance” shows three Black men representing each word in the title, while draped in American flag imagery.
Kwanzaa’s 1966 birth came during an era of major social upheaval in the U.S. While some may argue that backdrop never left, it’s again in the public eye in 2025. To Glapion, that only emphasizes the importance of celebrating community.
“History is repeating, we’re seeing a lot of that,” Glapion said. “We’re still subject to certain acts of violence or disciplines. Kwanzaa during the holidays (and) coming together as a community helps one find some peace during the holidays and some community.”
