Saturday marks the debut of the African American Cultural Festival. The two-day event in downtown Raleigh will feature performers including Chuck Davis and the African American Dance Ensemble, storyteller Connie Steadman, Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars, MLK All-Children's Choir and Chuck Brown, called the godfather of go-go music. A family village with make-and-take arts-and-craft activities for children, an art and vendor marketplace and more round out the offerings.
"The entire event is free," says Ken Martin, chairman of the board of governors for the festival. "We're encouraging families to come and be exposed to the music, culture and food. Our hope is that this event becomes the premier cultural event in North Carolina."
The festival has been in the making for a while.
"Two years ago, there was discussion between the mayor of Raleigh and a few of the elected officials - James West from the city of Raleigh, Lindy Brown from Wake County and Harold Webb, chairman of the Wake County Board of Commissioners," Martin says. "The discussion centered around what kind of activity would be best to hold in Raleigh/Wake County that would benefit African-American people and the county in general."
He says they wanted something that would generate revenue and bring a culturally significant event to this area.
"In the past, we had CIAA and MEAC conferences," Martin says. "We thought about having a festival as a way to bring people together and let other people be exposed to African-American culture, music, art, food and dance."
Focus groups met to talk about the concept and to generate ideas. The governing board was selected. Then, folks got to work turning the plan for the festival into reality. Labor Day weekend was chosen in part because it's the last long weekend of the summer.
"We wanted a weekend where the kids have time to recover," he says. "A three-day weekend is a good time to do that."
The festival will have two stages, one with performances specifically for children and families, and the other a main stage.
Martin hopes that people come from as far as Charlotte, Greenville and parts of Virginia. He'd like to see the festival grow and improve each year. One day, he envisions, events and performances will take place at venues all around downtown Raleigh.
For this inaugural festival, Martin is proud of all that they're offering.
"Our goal was to have every type of music genre represented from gospel to hip-hop to R&B to jazz and spoken word," he says. "We wanted to have something for everybody at the festival. I think we've accomplished that this year."
