Questlove’s feel-good hit film ‘Summer of Soul’ inspires new music festival in Harlem

Nina Simone performing at the Harlem Cultural Festival in 1969.
Nina Simone, seen performing on the Harlem Cultural Competition in 1969, was featured within the documentary “Summer season of Soul.”
(Searchlight Photos)

The Harlem Cultural Competition has come full circle because of Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson’s award-winning documentary, “Summer season of Soul.”

Introduced Wednesday, the music occasion, newly rebranded because the Harlem Competition of Tradition, is coming again to the New York Metropolis neighborhood in 2023. The reworked out of doors occasion is slated to return to its roots at Marcus Garvey Park, the web site of the unique pageant, in keeping with Billboard.

The information comes following the continued success of “Summer season of Soul,” the Oscar- and Grammy-winning documentary directed by Questlove, concerning the 1969 iteration of the pageant.

In back-to-back weeks this yr, the movie gained an Oscar for documentary characteristic and a Grammy for finest music movie. Questlove’s shifting acceptance speech for the previous was overshadowed by the chaos surrounding Will Smith slapping Chris Rock.

Helming this new pageant rendition are co-chairs Musa Jackson, Nikoa Evans and Yvonne McNair. Jackson, editor in chief at Ambassador Digital Journal, attended the 1969 pageant and in addition appeared within the documentary.

“We need to authentically encapsulate the total scope: the power, the music, the tradition,” Jackson stated in an announcement that accompanied the announcement. “We would like individuals to grasp that this pageant is being constructed by the people who find themselves from, reside and work on this neighborhood.”

The virtually-forgotten pageant is sometimes called the Black Woodstock due to its plentiful celebration of African American tradition via music and neighborhood activism. In 1969, roughly 300,000 individuals attended over the course of six concert events, in keeping with Rolling Stone, which featured artists akin to Nina Simone, Stevie Marvel, B.B. King, Mahalia Jackson and plenty of others.

The revived pageant’s major occasion reportedly gained’t debut till subsequent summer time however will likely be preceded by quite a lot of reside performances, open mic nights and movie screenings.

Along with the pageant, the three founders revealed a companion nonprofit basis program meant to offer alternatives for Harlem’s youth.

“Summer season of Soul” is on the market to stream on Hulu.

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