by Fred Logan
Thirty years ago, in August 1992, the 9th Annual Harambee II Black Arts Festival closed out with “The Queen of the Blues,” the legendary Koko Taylor & Her Blues Machine. Everybody was rocking, wall-to-wall, at the outdoor concert on Homewood Avenue.
Even some church folks, of African American heritage, “threw down” and danced the “down home” Boogie-woogie, in the street.
That was the last Harambee II festival. Over the years, Harambee II has become shrouded in mystery, rumors, and fiction. Persistently, Harambee II veterans have argued, over the years, that the real story of the festival must be told to stamp out this confusion.
I was with the festival from its inception until its close. And what follows is a very modest contribution, a summery of some key points in the history of the festival.
Sister Jamel Cross initiated the festival in 1983 in memory of Dale “Brother Bub” Shelton, a community activist who had been shot and killed. The first festival was not held until 1984.
The name “Harambee” happened by chance. One Saturday afternoon in ‘83, Jamel held a planning meeting at Homewood CCAC with Tamanikah Howze and me. By chance, Jamel pulled in Brother Tyrone an African drummer (who played briefly with Max Roach in the 1970s). This was the one and only Harambe II meeting Tyrone attended.
Several possible names were tossed around for the festival, including the Pittsburgh Black Arts Festival and the Homewood Black Arts Festival. Tyrone said, “Hey, What about Harambee II?” Immediately, everybody said, “That’s it.”
Why? Because, earlier, the first, very popular, Harambee Black Arts Festival had been held in Homewood in the years 1968 through 1971. Those dates are from the late Hakim Ali (nee, Earl Jones) director of the first Harambee Festival.
Harambee II was not affiliated with any arts festival in Homewood that came before it or came after it.
Contrary to fiction, there has not been a continuous annual Black arts festival, by any name, in Homewood over the past 50-odd years. From 1971 until 1984, the owner of the now long-gone Gabby’s Barber Shop at Homewood and Kelly had several carnivals with roulette wheels, pony rides for children and similar activities. This ended five or so years before Harambee II.
The Swahili word Harambee, “pulling together” was not a magic word behind the success of Harambee II.
The success of Harambee II was based squarely on the year-around work and planning that went into each festival. The Black community also gave the festival indispensable support vital to its success.
All over Pittsburgh, all over the United States, all over the world all kinds of successful arts and cultural festivals are held year-end-and-year-out.
The success or failure of any festival is a direct product of the quality of the work and planning that goes into it.
What happened to Harambee II? One key factor to its success was its location smack-dab-in-the-middle of the Black community. It was absolutely free. It brought into the middle of the Black community world renowned artists, activists and writers, including Hugh Masekela, Roy Ayers, August Wilson, the Rev. Herbert Daughtry, and Dr. Maulana Karenga.
But the festival rapidly outgrew its cherished location. And nowhere in Pittsburgh was there a site in a predominately Black enclave that could accommodate the Harambee II audience. The number of people at the festival was open to debate.
One Sunday afternoon in 1991, I looked up and down Homewood Avenue and guessed that 5,000 people were at the festival. Former Pittsburgh NAACP president Harvey Adams, replied in Harvey Adams-style, “Hell no, at least 20,000 people are here right now.” I left it at that.
The festival was located north-to-south on Homewood from Bennett Street to Hamilton Avenue, and east-to-west on Kelly Street from Sterrett Street to Lang Avenue. Kelly was only partially closed. Frankstown, Bennett and Hamilton are the major east to west traffic thoroughfares in Homewood. The festival could not expand and block Bennett or Hamilton and cause a major traffic night mare in the east end of the city.
Consider this; several years before Harambee II, the city of Pittsburgh brought Ella Fitzgerald to Point State Park for a free concert one year, and Ray Charles the next. Reportedly, both concerts drew almost 100,000 people. Reportedly both events were close to chaos.
The city conceded. Pittsburgh does not have the capacity of a New York City Central Park. It never again attempted a free mega-star concert.
Last, the Harambee II Festival was direct conscious resistance to the rise of right-wing racist reaction in that era when Ronald Reagan was in the White House—Trumping 30 years before Donald Trump.
The festival was part and parcel of Black struggles in the 1980s, the era of the US anti-apartheid movement, the MLK Day struggle, the Pittsburgh Black struggles against illegal drugs, the formation of the National Black United Front (NBUF) and the National Black Independent Political Party (NBIPP) and many, many more.
The people who anchored Harambee II were active in those struggles. The Festival was a direct product of those struggles. Without those Black struggles, no Harambee II Black Arts Festival in the Black community.
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