Mark of Honor

This year the entire nation will receive a Kwanzaa gift.

Created using kujichagulia, along with serious doses of kuumba)-- Kwanzaa principles that mean self-determination and creativity--this gift embodies some of the meaning of the African American holiday.

And soon it will be available at the local post office.

A new Kwanzaa stamp, designed by Los Angeles artist Synthia St. James, will be unveiled at 10 a.m. Wednesday in a public ceremony at the Natural History Museum in Exposition Park.

Maulana Karenga, the creator of Kwanzaa, said the release of the stamp is the result of “a beautiful act of cultural self-determination.”

“People from around the country wrote in to the stamp development department and requested the stamp,” said Karenga, chairman of the department of black studies at Cal State Long Beach.

“The release of the stamp and the national and communal activities around it are a deserved recognition of the importance of Kwanzaa to African people throughout the world African community,” he said.

The stamp will also help spread awareness of the holiday to others, said Larry Dozier, a spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service.

“Everyone will see the stamp,” Dozier said. “Everyone will use the stamp. Everyone will recognize it.”

The stamp may finally secure the holiday a place on the nation’s calendar, but that place has already been marked in the hearts of millions of people of African descent.

Kwanzaa was created by Karenga in 1966. The seven-day celebration--Dec. 26 to Jan. 1--is based on a philosophy known as kawaida. Each day a candle representing one of seven principles is lit, and observers reflect on and recommit to the principles: unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity and faith. Gifts are also given.

About 20 million people celebrate the holiday in the United States and abroad, said Karenga, who is also chairman of The Organization Us.

“When people talk about Kwanzaa they see it as a reaffirmation of family, community, and culture,” he said.

Those values can hold meaning for all races, Dozier said. The stamp is the latest installation in the Postal Service’s Holiday Celebration series that began with the release of a Christmas stamp in 1995, followed by a Hanukkah stamp last year, Dozier said.

The Kwanzaa stamp commission was offered to St. James like a gift: Unexpected. Unsolicited.

“There was no competition, nothing,” she said. “That blows me away.”

And yet it was a gift St. James had prepared to receive. The artist, who lives in Los Feliz, has spent a lifetime dedicated to color and canvas. Her work has appeared on 40 book covers, including Terry McMillan’s bestseller “Waiting to Exhale.”

St. James’ work--also emblazoned on T-shirts, mugs and baseball caps--created a path that led a postal representative straight to the artist. The image on the new stamp is a miniature--painted 4 1/2 inches by 5 1/2 inches--of a picture in “The Gifts of Kwanzaa,” a 1994 book written and illustrated by St. James.

That her life has grown even more hectic since the commission is not a problem for St. James, who spent last weekend in New York signing thousands of special edition prints of the image on the stamp.

“No matter what’s going on, I am overwhelmed and I’m beaming--not only in being the person to do the Kwanzaa stamp, but in being the first African American woman to be commissioned to do a stamp,” she said.

The highest praise has been the reaction of the public, she said, people of all races who are not only happy for her, but proud of her.

“It amazes me,” she said. “I’m very touched by it.”

Events will be held throughout the nation to mark the stamp’s release. Karenga and St. James will be on hand Wednesday to sign memorabilia. The post office will sell commemorative copies of St. James’ book as well as Karenga’s “Kwanzaa: A Celebration of Family, Community and Culture.”

Several local organizations are sponsoring a “Kwanzaa Family Unity Walk” Saturday at 9 a.m. in Leimert Park. The unveiling of the stamp coincides with an exhibit at the Natural History Museum, “Africa: One Continent. Many Worlds.” The museum’s rotunda features 38 paintings by St. James.