Unfortunately this festival is to be held on the west coast in
San Francisco.
The Black Love Festival, organized by China Pharr, Leigh
Davenport, and Etecia Brown; provides an example of love being used as
an organizing tool to build bridges, share resources, and create healing
spaces for and by black people. It takes place on Saturday July 18th from 12-6pm in Heron’s Head Park in Bayview Hunters Pointand
will be MC’d by v-logger Gazi Kodzo, with performances by DJ Underdog,
Rexxliferaj, Aziza Cree, and live painting by Markus Prime, headliners
and more artists will be announced soon. The festival will provide a
space for music, food, health education, environmental justice, healing,
and arts and is fiscally sponsored by Farms to Grow, an urban farming
organization based in Oakland. When asked about the importance of this
festival China Pharr states, “Love is resistance and it’s important that
we work on healing before continuing this struggle. We’re taking a
different approach to how people view resistance. Resistance isn’t just
protesting.” Leigh Davenport adds, “Social activism is very taxing . The
point is to show love to the black community and to use it as a form of
liberation.”
It's importance to the Black community of the Bay Area:
Pharr gave a compelling argument about why all Bay Area folks should
come out to support the Bayview during this event. She mentioned that
although the Oakland black community is facing similar issues related to
gentrification pushout, there’s a wealth of activities and events that
are provided for black people in Oakland which simply isn’t the case in
the Bayview. “The black community in San Francisco is hanging by a
thread. It has the fastest out-migration of black people since
post-Katrina New Orleans,” says Pharr. “We are facing similar issues and
it’s important for us to see and learn about the Bayview and connect
with black folks across the bridge. Rallying people to make the
trip will be an important first step towards unity.”
The next question and the reason why I share this is to ask if this is something that could be done here in Chicago? All we need to do is pick a community where this would take place.
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