African American Cultural Festival

The celebrated African American festival took place on September 2 -4, 2011 in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina. The first festival of its kind was held last year with festivities lasting two days. This year the festival expanded to include an extra day and the Raleigh residents were treated to a three day rich cultural extravaganza along the newly revitalized Fayetteville Street in Downtown Raleigh. The celebrations included cultural displays, music, food, dance, and the arts.

The inaugural African American Festival had more than 15,000 in attendance. The cultural artists, vendors, family entertainers' main stage featured performances by the legendary Chuck Brown, Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars, the African American Dance Ensemble, Soul Rebels Brass Band, Marcus Anderson, The Lee Boys, Mixed Water, John Brown and the Groove Shop Band, and Kooley high crafts.

There were people of all walks of life represented at the festival; the old, the young, traders, and many others, and each found a performance or an artifact that probably interested them.  One couple stated "I'm glad I brought my whole family, because it was family fun event." The family village was located on 300 block of Fayetteville St between Davie and Martin St.  Spoken Word with Elliot Axiom, Alicia Anderson and Andra Kellon were there the first to perform in the Family Village. Many other events went on throughout the day in the family village including storytelling, Kenya Safari acrobats and ending with the Purple Charlotte steppers.

The family village was only one of many events going on. Close by, Chuck Brown and African American Dance Ensemble performed on the main stage. Family-friendly craft activities for children and entertainment on the Family Village Stage lasted all weekend.  Hands-on activities in the Family Village are coordinated by Kibibi Ajanku of the Sankofa Dance Theater of Baltimore.

Troop 41, who hit the main stage at 4:00 p.m. on the festivals final day was a particular attraction. Troop 41 is a phenomenal rap trio based in Raleigh, whose roots are in every area of music.  They began their career in 2005, in a rap class at Raleigh's Ligon Middle School. In their own words, they are "striving to become legends in the making, putting real music back into Hip Hop."  Their 'Do the John Wall' video has received over 4 Million hits on YouTube to date.

This was another outstanding year in Downtown Raleigh and from the outlooks of it this will be an annual event to look out for by all Raleigh residents seeing the success of the second year celebrations. "This was my first festival and I really will be coming back in 2012" one lady stated.