Don’t call it a comeback.
The Fredericksburg Black Arts Festival has been here for five decades and celebrated the late Clarence Todd’s Harambee 360 Theatre on its 50th anniversary this past weekend. Todd’s daughter, Gaye Adegbalola, a local activist and Blues Music Award winner, and her son, Juno Todd, designed a festival to be held over three consecutive days in Fredericksburg.
Sunday’s event featured a church service at Shiloh Baptist Church (new site) in downtown Fredericksburg. During the service, many of Harambee 360’s original members gathered to celebrate Carole Hamm.
“Bringing the festival to Shiloh Baptist (new site) is a full circle moment,” Todd said. “Adding church service for the first time is something I wanted to do this weekend to raise awareness about the history of my grandfather and the people he collaborated with at the theatre that originated on Lafayette Street in downtown Fredericksburg in 1975,.”
Hamm used to work with teenagers at Shiloh Baptist (new site) and began helping Clarence Todd produce shows like “Shades of Soul.” Fredericksburg City Schools Superintendent Dr. Marceline Catlett and her sister, Ward 4 school board rep. Malvina Rollins-Kay, were both members of the Harambee 360 Theatre in the 1970s.
Catlett recalled doing shows throughout the community, including at women’s prisons.
“We used to do black teenage beauty pageants as well, that’s how the theatre raised money to keep its doors open,” she said. “I was runner-up in a couple pageants, I won most creative expression for my role as Harriet Tubman in a play, and my sister won first place in a pageant before.”
Adegbalola wants to keep the Harambee story alive.
“I want people to know what my dad did and how he did it,” she said. “Black artists weren’t allowed in white galleries back then; that’s one of the reasons my father created the Harambee 360 Theatre.”
Last year, Todd did most of the organizing for the annual event, but this year, he formed a planning committee to help carry out his vision. The Black Arts Festival kicked off at the Fredericksburg Area Museum on Friday.
Erika Anduze helped launch this year’s show with a stellar dance performance to James Weldon Johnson’s original hymn “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” This performance was significant because, when Todd’s grandfather passed away, Anduze’s father took over production at the Harambee Theatre to keep it active.
“People enjoyed the performances, but everyone doesn’t know the ties a lot of the performers have to the theatre,” Todd added.
On the festival’s opening day, Catlett told the audience the Harambee 360 Theatre, Miss Black Teenage Pageant and the Black Arts Festival “all gave members cultural identity, social cohesiveness, joy, love and precious memories.”
Go-go music was introduced to the Black Arts Festival last year when Xpress Band closed the show. “The band did so well, other event planners booked them this summer based on what they did last year,” Todd said.
The Don Brown Project opened the event with a musical performance and local go-go band Major League would bless attendees with their significant sound this year, bringing the anticipated festival to a close on day one.
Spectators viewed paintings from Blessed Hands, Lateefah Muhammad, Kris Patterson, and Lyric Swain, while the guides offered tours of the Fredericksburg Area Museum’s “Living Legacies” exhibit.
While the weather had other plans on Saturday — causing the festival to be washed out — Clarence Todd’s legacy is set in stone. Day 2 was scheduled to include a history lesson, an auction and countless performances.
Jarvis Bailey, Karen Hall, and Angela Lewis were slated to emcee the event Saturday at the Old Walker-Grant, and canceled live performances included Xpress Band, a New Restoration Outreach dance performance, Rebel Roses and a host of others.
Even though a third of the festival was rained out, Adegbalola was thrilled about how things went and said this weekend gave her a natural high.
In the future, Todd hopes to expand the Black Arts Festival by adding new acts and performances.
“I’m hoping the community will continue to run with this event and make it even larger”, Todd said.
