Welcome to the Bridgetown Church Podcast. For the month of February, we are honoring Black

History Month. Each week, members of our church family will be sharing stories that acknowledge

and celebrate Black History from both their lived experiences and the world at large.

What was going on Bridgetown Family, this is Harking Bradley, just one among many. And I am here

with our sister Dara this morning. And we are excited to hear a little bit about her story.

So first and foremost, sis, could you tell us a little bit about where you come from,

family of origin, stuff of that sort? Yeah. So I was born in Princeton, New Jersey,

college town. And yeah, East Coast, my family is Nigerian. And the Nigerian American

parents came to America in the 80s for higher education. My mom was working on a double masters.

My dad was working on a doctorate in Philly. And so they met there. And so yeah, my Nigerian

heritage is deeply a part of who I am. Yeah, that's sweet. I'm from Philly. So that just made me

really excited. I really got to get some cheese steaks when you can. I mean, you and I are sitting

across these tables for the sake of celebrating Black History Month. So I'm just curious to know

from your experience and from your heart, like, why does Black History Month matter to you? Why does

Black History in general matter to you? Yeah. Just hear some of your thoughts on that. Yeah. So I think

Black History Month is such an important time to just stop and recognize the Black community as a

whole and what the Black community actually consists of. It's not a monolith. And specifically African

American history doesn't just start at the slave trade. It starts back in Africa. And I think it's

just an important time to remember that African American history is not just birthed out of

adversity, but also out of joy and out of geniuses, right? There's this quote that says they didn't

steal slaves from Africa. They stole doctors and scientists and preachers and people who

consisted of this

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