 You would think that this would be our first time, but it feels so much like the first time that we are able to meet and cut ribbon together. It touches my heart to see so many people taking the time out. This is a work day lunch time. You could be eating lunch somewhere and you're with us and we truly, truly appreciate it as you join us as we go through our ribbon cutting ceremony. I welcome each one of you and before you leave, we have cards because we're going to draw for some gifts. We want to pass out some gifts because we want to show our love back to you for your love to us for showing up for this event. So if you would, we have cards if you can fill them out and put it in the box towards the back and we do have snacks for you as well that we don't want to eat ourselves, all by ourselves. So please share with us, okay? And we're going to move forward. Before we speak with the mayor, Jimmy is going to come up and he's going to pour libation. Let me first say this is libation. This is not a love potion as the mayor would call it, but it is a libation and African customs libation was always poured to include the ancestors involved in all that we do. So this is truly a celebration that we want our ancestors to be here with us so that they may be included in everything that we do from start to finish. We want our ancestors, you know, our mothers and fathers, great grandparents, who all those who played a part in our lives that to bring us to the moments that we're in right now, this is what this libation is for. So as I go through the libation, when I pour water into the plant, the plant is always a symbolism of growth. As the plant grows, we also want to grow in our spirituality as well as our knowledge and our wisdom because life and nature clearly gives us clarity and understanding. So as I speak, and as I say, when the water is poured in the plant, I'm going to say, I say, and we ask all of you to say, I say, I say means for our ancestors to be with us. That's what it means. So every time we pour, we say, I say, okay, we call upon our ancestors far and near fathers and mothers of our fathers, mothers and fathers of our mothers to bear witness to all that we have done. And it is by their example that they continue to inspire us towards reclaiming our African minds, regenerating our African spirit, liberating our families and our communities and restoring our greatness as a people. We pour libation to bring into our midst their venerable African spirit, radiating their great wisdom, their courage and dedication and their unyielding commitment to victory by any means necessary. It is in the honor of our creator, our ancestors, our mothers and fathers, our sisters and brothers, our children and their children, our grandparents, great grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends and elders of our communities, those who have all transitioned that we call upon your engaging spirit, your energy and your soul, that it may manifest itself through all thoughts, words and actions that we commit ourselves to. We pour this libation in your honor, in the honor of our creator and in the various manifestations of the creative spirit. We pour libation. I share for our steam ancestors who laid the foundation for human civilization and who provides the wisdom to which we live and the models by which our lives are guided. We pour libation and for our steam ancestors who suffered the atrocities and the horrors of our ma'afah but yet demonstrated the victorious power of the African spirit by maintaining their dignity no matter the cost. We pour libation. And for our steam ancestors who survived and made it possible for us to be here today to continue on the value fight for African liberation and vindication. We pour libation. And for our children and our children's children and future generations of Africans to come that they too in their time will vindicate our race from all adversaries and to continue to imprint upon the world the great genes of African humanity. We pour libation. May the venerable spirit engulf this occasion to reaffirm our Africanity. It is done. Our creator is satisfied. Ashe. Ashe. Ashe. Ashe. Ashe. Thank you. At. Thank you. Thank you. At this time we will now bring uh at the mirror to come up and speak for us as well as we can do the ribbon cutting ceremony and after that after that time we will have several people to come up and speak about their experiences in the house of Hathor. Thank you. It's a great great honor to be here today not only because they're growing the house is growing that is a testimony in itself folks if you if you had been to the old location it was filled with love reflections on family history culture all in one place and now they have room to grow and what's even great and you know this is meant to be because if you look at the sign over there guess who's the top billing I don't think I have to say much more than that you know I mean there's a reason for everything that happens and I really appreciate uh Jimmy and Angela and the community constantly giving back making the community better showing up to public hearings thank you Jimmy for being there last night because it's important that people understand that that when a store invests and grows in a community they're part of that community we have to support them and they're supporting us they're going to continue to grow and they're going to bring a center of cultural awareness art history and and teaching our youth not to forget about our past but don't spend your whole time looking in the rear view mirror look at the windshield how we move forward together congratulations on the the reopening I like to call it a grand opening because it's about four times the size of your old store and this is a blessing thank you very much to both of you for what you're doing in our community and your re-investment here in North Columbia thank you peace and divine blessings everyone it is such an honor to be here my name is Anne Vrenasia Williams and I am a young goddess who is continuing to carry the torch forward from all of the knowledge that I am learning from this beautiful beautiful establishment and the beautiful community that I am a part of it is such a joy to number one not be a Colombian native at all but to come down and find such an awesome couple as Brother Jimmy and Sister Andrea and just find a home it's more than the house of Hathor it is the home for me because it's so much love like the mayor said is full of love community art culture I've learned so much and I'm continuing to thrive and grow this is an awesome place to bring your youth to continue to learn even more and grow I thank you so much for all that you poured into me and we shall continue to thrive and move forward and the store shall continue to get bigger because that is the goal so thank you so much and it's so well deserved and it's an honor thank you greetings everyone how's everyone doing you all look so beautiful out here for this beautiful occasion I don't want to I don't have too much to say because when it comes to what the house of Hathor has meant to me and has done for me in my life I can take a million years and not come up with the correct words verbiage or phrases to describe what they've done for me I found myself in this place I don't call it the house of Hathor I call it the home of Hathor and Jimmy and Angela you know they they aren't people you know oh they are royalty and what they've done for not not only me but people around me and you know you go out into the world and you carry that reflection with you and that energy you feel when you walk inside that door and when you come out of that door no matter who you are the energy you feel will reverberate to others around you you got to believe if you don't believe in the power of energy the power of collective community work and consciousness I dare you to walk through that door and walk back out and not be a better person. Jimmy and Angela I can only laugh with y'all. Thank you for the opportunity and just thank you thank you thank you. Good afternoon everyone. Peace and blessings to each and every one of you. I want to take the time to say more than thank you. On this corner here there's no other culture center on this corner but right here one of the things that we have to be very clear about that we need to be culturally balanced and when I say we humanity humanity began in mother Africa we need to be culture about this is a culture center this is a culture center when I met my brother Jimmy as the mayor said earlier it was in the community my life has been community that's been my life community and this is where I met brother Jimmy I think it was on 14 several years ago we was addressing some issues and from there the rest is history my life has been centered around community culture politics economic etc out of the house of Hattor I bear witness the young folks who has been resurrected the adults who has been resurrected in regards to wisdom and knowledge in regards to counseling there's all we're talking counseling we're talking from education the economics the politics we're talking community collectiveness ongoing I think it was recently we was over in one community when some young folks got killed this is what's the house they have to been doing so it's more than just a culture center it is a community it's where the community can come and resolve the issues at the last uh at the last place over here where they have I think we had several meetings and I think the mayor was there several meetings with all kind of politicians we must continue to raise the house of Hattor we must raise it and as we raise it let's focus on the children let's focus on the children let's continue as the children came in there let's make sure they come in here and as they come in here let's pool our resources together collectively collectively as one village one community they said take a what was it saying take a village to raise a child oh who's going to raise the village who's going to raise the village we we have to move away from the eye and we because that's what the eye that's what the eye is about the eye must be turned into we and we into them and them and today and day into us and we all in this thing together regards to the fact because surely under the sky we all must transition we all must transition but the question remains what legacy will we leave behind for the children and I'm emphasizing the children because we got some major issues today that's centered around the children so we have to come together as a collective no more lip service no more lip service let's put aside our petty differences let's begin to engage our self-conservative engagement as brother jimmy went down to the city council last night it should have been thousands of people down there let's begin to teach the children about local government local politics economics because again it's necessary critically necessary and we must remember and the final analysis the question remains what have you done to make it better for those that came before you welcome to the house of hapten