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Black Love Day
February 13
Black Love Day (BLD)
31st Year – Black Love Day, Feb. 13, 2024
message encourages communities of color, especially, but all communities, to use the higher vibration of
love as a mental health solution to help us heal the disconnection so many feel; to help us reconcile our
differences for better relationships and to use its healing value of creating inner peace which fosters greater
resilience in these turbulent times.
Ayo Handy-Kendi, 64, is the founder of the African American Holiday Association, a non-profit that seeks to preserve black culture through tradition and ritual. Handy-Kendi, who also goes by Mama Ayo, created Black Love Day in 1993 as an alternative holiday for black people to celebrate and love one another at a time of year when love is already in the air.
Black Love Day has risen to prominence in recent years, the holiday has become a popular hashtag affirming many forms of black love on Twitter and Instagram #BLD.
The celebrations have now expanded to include white people to “show love in action on Black Love Day,” thanks to a suggestion made by Handy-Kendi’s significant other. This inclusivity was needed so that both, the blacks and the whites, could heal their relationships and return to love. This necessitated that the whites examine their white privilege and racial attitudes. Today, on social media, Black Love Day has become a popular hashtag, thereby helping to spread more awareness about the day.