The Festival, as it is affectionately called, will be from 10:00am to 9:00pm each day. The park is located on Navy Street between Park and Flushing Avenues in the Fort Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn. The theme this year is SISABALANDELE, Zulu for “We Are Still Following Them” (The Ancestors). For more information, visit the website at: www.IAAFestival.org
Other key highlights at IAAFestival include the 27th Annual Symposium, a daily children’s program, a talent search, an arts and craft zone, a chess tournament, the annual natural hair show, a fashion show, a health fair, a poetry and spoken word show, an Akom ceremony, martial arts exhibitions, dance workshops, and many other attractions.
Appropriate for people of all ages, backgrounds, and musical preferences, the admission to Commodore Barry Park is FREE. For directions: www.nycgovparks.org/parks/
History
IAAFestival began in 1971 as a fundraiser for the Uhuru Sasa School, a community-based initiative that educated youth and adults about African culture. The fundraiser was a small festival with about 20 arts and crafts vendors, local entertainers, and food prepared by parents of the students who attended Uhuru Sasa School. Almost 2,000 people came to the event and the fundraiser was a major success. That early format of integrating entertainment, food, and marketplace drew increasing crowds annually and the event became known as the African Street Carnival. Four years later, the carnival was moved to the field at Boys and Girls High School in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. There, the event became the African Street Festival. Today, the event is known as the International African Arts Festival and has an estimated annual audience of 75,000. While still held in Brooklyn, The Festival is now in its third transition to a larger venue. The original approach of showcasing local folk arts and entertainment has remained, yet has simultaneously grown to include artists such as The Mighty Sparrow, Fela Kuti, Living Colour, KRS-1, Doug E. Fresh, Third World, Erykah Badu, India Arie, Ms. Lauryn Hill, and many other nationally and internationally revered artists.
PARTNERS and SPONSORS
The International African Arts Festival is a 501c3 non-profit organization supported by marketplace vendors, festival volunteers, and patrons with additional support from public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA), the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), and with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, New York State Assemblywoman Annette Robinson, the New York City Council Brooklyn Delegation (Councilmembers Inez Barron, Robert E. Cornegy Jr., Laurie A. Cumbo, Jumaane D. Williams, and Darlene Mealy; and Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams), the New York City Department for the Aging, and Consolidated Edison Company (Con Ed). | 2016 Media Partners include CPR Reggae, CPR Metro, The Brooklyn Reader (BKReader.com), Gardens of Contemplation and Tranquility with Daa’iya El-Sansui (WHCR 90.3FM Radio), Thermal Soundwaves with C. Truth and Kev Lawrence (WHCR 90.3FM Radio), Our Time Press, Yelp, and WBAI 99.5FM Radio.