This is the official Kwanzaa website. I recommend the website of the National Museum of African American History & Culture as an excellent place to find information about this holiday. Whether you follow the ritual as prescribed or create your own version, I think Kwanzaa offers a framework worthy of our consideration. Writing and talking about the seven principles may bring clarity and depth to your life, as you reflect upon the past and move forward. This is especially good as a tool for considering your relationships to communities, and how community interests and individual interests coincide or conflict.
Today is the fourth day of Kwanzaa, the day on which we celebrate the principle — Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics). 
This is essentially a commitment to the practice of shared social wealth and the work necessary to achieve it. As I write this, I’m thinking of Collective Courage: A History of African American Cooperative Economic Thought and Practice,by Jessica Gordon Nembhard. If you’re not in the mood to read, you can find several videos of Dr. Nembhard on the internet here.
As I consider the principles of Nia (Purpose), Kuumba (Creativity), and Imani (Faith), I am reflecting upon the ways that we create meaning and purpose in our lives. I want to share two more sources of inspiration and invite you to explore the possibilities presented by these authors, and join me in creating new ways to celebrate our lives. (The quotes that follow are taken from the publishers’ websites.)
“Black Freethinkers argues that, contrary to historical and popular depictions of African Americans as naturally religious, freethought has been central to black political and intellectual life from the nineteenth century to the present. Freethought encompasses many different schools of thought, including atheism, 
agnosticism, and nontraditional orientations such as deism and paganism. Christopher Cameron suggests an alternative origin of nonbelief and religious skepticism in America, namely the brutality of the institution of slavery. He also traces the growth of atheism and agnosticism among African Americans in two major political and intellectual movements of the 1920s: the New Negro Renaissance and the growth of black socialism and communism. In a final chapter, he explores the critical importance of freethought among participants in the civil rights and Black Power movements of the 1960s and 1970s. Examining a wealth of sources, including slave narratives, travel accounts, novels, poetry, memoirs, newspapers, and archival sources such as church records, sermons, and letters, the study follows the lives and contributions of well-known figures, including Frederick Douglass, Zora Neale Hurston, James Baldwin, and Alice Walker, as well as lesser-known thinkers such as Louise Thompson Patterson, Sarah Webster Fabio, and David Cincore.”
“Millicent E. Brown’s family home at 270 Ashley Avenue in Charleston, South Carolina, was a center of civil rights activity. There Brown gained intimate knowledge of the struggle for racial justice, and those experiences set her on a life course dedicated to the civil rights struggle. Best known as the named plaintiff in the federal court case that, in 1963, forced the initial desegregation of public schools in South Carolina, her experiences as an activist range across years and well beyond her native state. Another Sojourner Looking for Truth is Brown’s insightful reflection on her search for freedom in a nation deeply mired in white supremacist beliefs and overt violence against people of color. In this revealing memoir, Brown writes about her fears and doubts, as well as the challenges of being a teenager expected to “represent the race” and combat negative stereotypes of African Americans. Readers also gain perspective on the interpersonal aspects of white backlash to civil rights progress and strategic machinations within the movement.”