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Our Story
Harambee Legacy
ByAkmed Khalifa
It wasn't just about having fun for three days,
although a great time was had by all who
participated, and by all I mean approximately fifty
thousand Black Folks. And it wasn't just about
commandeering the streets, taking over ten blocks
of the community: streets, sidewalks, alleyways,
and parking lots. There was a certain amount of
satisfaction in control over territory in our own
community. It wasn't solely about the joy of
coming together as a people: sharing in the
camaraderie, the solidarity of our common cause,
our quest for liberation and power, even though it
was the backbone of all our efforts.
It was a celebration of what W.E.B. Dubois called
the Souls of Black Folk: of what Amiri Baraka
called Blues People, of what John Coltrane called
A Love Supreme, of what Alvin Ailey called
Revelations, of what couldn't be called or named
about the essence and spirit of every Black man,
woman, and child in Amerika. It oozed out into
the air and the streets and filled up the empty
spaces so that we were one people: one love,
one connected mass of folks, one
representation of Black Power.
Back then we were an organization of young
people under the age of twenty-five, in fact we
were all between the ages of twelve and
twenty-three. We had a lot going on in those
days, which helped the Black Arts Festival
effort. Our organization was called Together
Incorporated and we were involved in just
about every aspect of Homewood's community
life. We functioned throughout the year and
festival planning was an ongoing effort. We
also operated Harambee bookstore, which was
a rallying point and a source of information
for the Black community in the city.
It took a great deal of time and work and
collaboration from the entire Black community in
Pittsburgh to pull off a successful festival, but we
also benefitted from the national Black Power
Movement in the country and the reality that there
were festivals in so many other cities and a
network of people and organizations that we were
connected to. It was hard work, but satisfying on
so many levels. Looking back can also be a look
forward, one that can inform our current and
future efforts, one that can help us to reestablish
the positive benefits of collective work and
responsibility and continue to make Homewood
an annual setting for the celebration of the art of
our people.
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H a r a m b e e B l a c k A r t F e s t i v a l
Harambee Black Art Festival
Akmed Khalifa holds Bachelor of Arts, Master
of Arts, Master of Fine Arts degrees, and
studied for a year as an artist in residence at
the Minneapolis Playwright's Center. He
teaches as an adjunct professor at
Metropolitan State University in St Paul
Minnesota. He works for the Bloomington
Public Schools in Minnesota with K-12 students
in need of academic, social and emotional
support. He has published two books and a
third is due out in August. He is also a