(upbeat music) - Sema Hadithi's 10th Annual Ancestral Remembrance Celebration honors those preserving and sharing black history in Utah.

Executive Director and President Robert Burch is here with more details about this year's event.

Hi Robert!

- Hi.

- It's always good to see you.

- How you doing?

(both laughs) - 10 years!

- Yes.

- I can't believe it.

- 10 years that we've been doing this conference, but actually our 5th birthday this year, August the 20th as Sema Hadithi.

- Okay.

Okay.

So, tell us about this Black History Conference and Ancestral Remembrance Day.

- Well, the Ancestral Remembrance Day is gonna be, as I said, our 5th birthday and the 5th year that we get an opportunity to bring folks together and remember and celebrate the ancestors as the title suggests, as well as give awards to folks who have made contributions during the year to archive and remember and share Utah's black history.

- So tell us, what can people expect when they attend the conference?

- Oh wow!

For the conference itself, this is our opportunity to teach Utah's black history.

Many folk don't know a lot about the stories of African Americans here in Utah since you know, the mid 1800s.

And there are some really great stories, huge stories, kind of even, I would say, oversized stories about African Americans contribution to Utah that just don't get shared.

So, that's what we're trying to do.

And this year we're gonna be focused on the Green Book and other travel guides to talk about safety and the need for safety as the African Americans travel through the country as well as Utah.

- Yeah, so that's the theme.

Ease on down the road.

- Yes.

Ease on down the road.

And so we want people to think of it as, one, the need for safety, but two, also to need to continue on together and to continue to progress and think of it not as a painful thing, even though there's challenges, but something that we can enjoy doing together.

- That's wonderful.

I love it.

Oversized stories that need to be told.

Well, thank you so much.

Thank you so much for introducing us to this conference.

- Good to see you!

- If you'd like to learn more about Sema Hadithi's "Ancestral Remembrance Celebration" and the "Tell the Story Black History Conference", the Remembrance Day is on September 12th, and the conference is on September 13th.

You can learn more at semahadithifoundation.org.

That's semahadithifoundation.org.

I'm Laura Durham.

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