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Post Staff
Celebrating African American legacy through food, music and art, Oakland’s Ninth Annual Black-Eyed Pea Festival will be bigger and better at its new location at Marston Campbell Park in West Oakland on Sept. 14.
Appealing to all ages, the free festival will feature African American traditional music from several genres including straight-ahead jazz, New Orleans-style second-line and Zydeco. Our full line-up includes headliner Andre Thierry Accordion Soul Music (Zydeco); MJ’s Brass Boppers (second-line); Valerie Troutt’s MoonCandy, and Dimensions Dance Theatre.
The festival will begin with sacred acknowledgment of the land by Wakan-Wiya Two-Spirit Drum and Awon Ohun Omnira’s drumming homage to African ancestors.
Especially for kids
The BEPF is providing dedicated fun for children.
From 1:30-2:30, the festival has entertainment for children by youth members of the Prescott Circus including stilt walkers, juggling, and tumbling. They will remain on hand for the day so children can learn the African roots of circus arts.
Patanisha Williams will provide arts and crafts for toddlers up to early teens, using black-eyed peas as well as drawing and painting with a focus on Ghana’s Adinkra ‘alphabet’ of symbols.
For adults, Bushmama will conduct an indigo dying workshop, referencing the African origins of the plant cultivated by enslaved Africans that would eventually give rise to the denim industry.
Hand-made items for sale by people of African descent will include among others the paintings, mugs and prints by the festival’s poster designer Karin Turner.
Come and eat
Local chefs from Ate O Clock catering and Coco Breeze restaurant offer typical soul food and Trinidadian fare, including black-eyed peas. Hal Stephen’ will have your festival fare – hot dogs and hamburgers – but also a vegan Black-eyed pea patty.
Why a Black-Eyed Pea Festival?
“The black-eyed pea is a metaphor for what is resilient, creative, and collaborative about African-American culture,” said Wanda Ravernell, director of the Black-Eyed Pea Festival and founder of Omnira Institute.
“We are especially pleased to have a range of genres in this year’s line-up because it brings to mind the time when Oakland’s Seventh Street was the ‘Harlem of the West,’” Ravernell said. Gentrification has almost finished the job that the construction of the Grove Shafter Freeway, BART tracks and the Post Office did in dividing what had once been a thriving Black community.
The sound of the music, the scent of the food and the creativity of the artists invokes that time of prosperity. “Their work is entertaining, but it’s also a history lesson and a healing.”
The festival is sponsored by the Post News group and receives support from the California Arts Council, The San Francisco Foundation, the Alliance for California Traditional Arts and the Center for Cultural Power.
“This festival brings our mission to life,” says Ravernell. “We want to highlight and preserve the cultural and spiritual traditions of African Americans and demonstrate how these traditions are connected to Africa and the African Diaspora.”
The festival still has a few slots left for vendors of African descent who create their own work. The fee is $70. The City of Oakland requires vendors to have an Oakland business license as well as a temporary seller’s permit.
For more information on vending opportunities or the festival in general, please see our web site www.oakbepf.com or email us at oakbepf@gmail.com or call (510) 332-5851.
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Who: The 9th Annual Black-Eyed Pea Festival
When: Sat. Sept. 14, 2024
Where: Marston Campbell Park, 17th and West Streets, Oakland CA, 94607
Time: 11:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.
What: Jazz, Second line bands, Black entrepreneurs, soul food and a special pavilion for children
Entry: Free
Quote: “We are celebrating the creativity and resiliency of African American heritage through food, music and art.”
For more information, call 510-332-5851
