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17

SUNDAY

Marcus Garvey wasn’t the sharpest leader to bless Afro-America, but he did have something that today’s black leadership sorely lacks—a vision. OK, so the idea of transporting 20 million black folks back home wasn’t very realistic and never came to fruition. Still, along the way Garvey managed to make a huge case for self-determination by opening businesses in the ‘hood and publishing a newspaper with international distribution. And he did it all in an entertaining and colorful fashion; he once said the somewhat elitist W.E.B. Du Bois should be taken out and given “a good horse-whipping.” At least today’s black leadership is still entertaining, if somewhat empty. Join poets Kenny Carroll and Sidney March and reggae band Griot as they pay tribute at the “Marcus Garvey Birthday Celebration” at 4 p.m. at Crossroads, 4103 Baltimore Ave., Bladensburg. FREE. (301) 585-4443. (Ta-Nehisi Coates)