An annual Kwanzaa celebration in Clark County will not take place this year after organizers with Please Don’t Die Black Men (PDDBM) announced the event’s cancellation, citing funding challenges, low ticket sales and limited volunteer support.
The celebration was scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 13, at the theARTScentered building in Vancouver as a way to celebrate the holiday before its observance from Dec. 26 to Jan. 1. In recent years, the event has rotated through several venues in Clark County as organizers searched for affordable spaces to support a large cultural gathering.
PDDBM, a Vancouver-based nonprofit, has hosted Kwanzaa celebrations on and off since 2015. The event returned in 2022 after a multi-year hiatus and ran for three consecutive years before this year’s cancellation.
Ruby Lewis, chairwoman and president of PDDBM, said the decision came down to basic feasibility.
“I think there was one person who bought tickets. That was it, and we don’t have the funds for it,” she said. “We don’t have enough volunteers, and trying to run a whole Kwanzaa show with only three people is just not feasible.”
Lewis said awareness and interest remain major obstacles, even after a year of promotion. According to Lewis, the advertisements the organization purchased on a local news station were never promoted to the community.
“We always put the Kwanzaa celebration a year in advance on our website, so people can buy tickets in advance. We always put it on Facebook, social media, and we’ve had the 2025 Kwanzaa celebration on there for a whole year, and we just couldn’t generate (anything),” she said.
Despite the cancellation, Lewis said the organization plans to bring the celebration back in 2026, though a location has not yet been secured. The team is currently searching for a smaller venue in Downtown Vancouver to host the annual celebration.
“We do have it scheduled for 2026,” she said. “Unless we get more ticket sales, unless we get more people involved, unless we get more collaborations, it’s gonna be hard.”
Lewis emphasized the cultural importance of the event and said its absence leaves a gap in Clark County.
“It’s a shame because there aren’t enough cultural events in this area in Clark County anyway, and Kwanzaa is one (holiday) that is completely cultural for African Americans,” she said. “I would love to see the Kwanzaa celebration as big as any of the other cultural events around here.”
She said the organization is reassessing how it connects with the community and spreads the word moving forward.
“I’m trying to figure out what the best way to reach out to the community is, and I haven’t grasped that yet,” she said. “Back in the day, it used to be the newspaper. Now it’s like there are so many avenues and all of them cost a huge amount of money.”
While the in-person celebration is on hold, community members can still watch last year’s Kwanzaa celebration online. A full video of the 2024 event is available at vimeo.com/1041891194?share=copy&fl=sv&fe=ci.
