(upbeat music) - Ngoma y' Africa Cultural Center is dedicated to teaching the community about African culture and creating a support network for African descent families in Utah.

Here with details about the third annual African Heritage Festival is Yvonne Nsabimana.

Hi Yvonne.

Thank you for being here.

So, briefly tell us about the cultural center and its importance before you tell us all about the big festival.

- Yeah, thank you.

Thanks for having me.

So, Ngoma y' Africa Cultural Center is a nonprofit that has been founded seven years ago, really mainly to support African descent families.

And that includes to help them feel completely included in the society in America.

And that started with wanting to create a space where they could be basically expressed their culture, capture it, and also share it with the community, which helps with creating self-identity, self-acceptance, also being the way to help them also continue to prosper in the United States.

- And, and your festival is a great way to introduce the community to all of these wonderful things.

- Exactly, yes.

It's our third festival and it's been really successful in a sense that we get to bring in all these different communities together.

Not only African descent community, but also the communities of Utah.

It's down in Orem, Utah County where you have a lot of families, a lot of people really eager to learn about Africa.

I'm an educator myself, so I remember when I used to teach my children in school how really they would be happy to learn about Africa.

And so we bring that through music, storytelling, dance, drumming.

We are gonna have a lot of arts and crafts vendors and also food vendors that could let people taste the, the food of Africa and also feel the culture and the arts.

- It's wonderful.

Well, I'm so glad you came and thank you for bringing everything.

Thanks for being here.

- Oh, thank you.

Thanks for having me.

- And if you would like to know more about that upcoming third annual African Heritage Festival, it's June 3rd from two to eight at the Orchard at University Place in Orem.

Go to culturelearningcenter.org.

That's culturelearningcenter.org.

I'm Mary Dickson.

Thanks for watching Contact.

(upbeat music) - Local events, arts, culture.

It's what brings us together.

Hi, I'm Mary Dickson.

Here on Contact, we introduce you to local events and organizations that serve your neighborhood.

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