Watch the National Black Arts Festival Blossom - Brief Article

American Visions, June, 2000 by Stan Washington

The idea was never meant to be modest. from the beginning, the National Black Arts Festival was conceived as big ... bold ... eclectic ... energetic ... and dedicated to quality.

Those who have regularly attended the biennial National Black Arts Festival (NBAF) in Atlanta will notice some major changes in this year's celebration, which will run from July 28 to August 6. The first NBAF of the new millennium will not be as enormous as its predecessors, and it will be concentrated mostly in two areas of the city. There will be fewer free events, which in years past competed with those that charged admission and deprived the festival of precious revenue--the lifeblood of any nonprofit arts organization. The NBAF, being presented for the sixth time in 12 years, is also moving toward becoming a year-round arts institute that provides arts education programs and puts on a festival, as opposed to an organization whose only purpose is to put on a 10-day festival every other year.

Stephanie S. Hughley is the NBAF's new executive producer. She asserts that the festival must scale back its wide offerings of theater, dance, music, poetry and art if it is to survive. This is Hughley's second tour of the festival. She served as its founding artistic director from 1987 to 1992, before leaving to become the theater and dance producer of the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games Cultural Olympiad. After the Olympics, she accepted the position of vice president of programming at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, in Newark.

When the NBAF board of directors decided that it needed someone to take it to the next level, the call went out to Hughley to come home. Hughley has vast experience as both an artist (a dancer in several companies) and an arts administrator. Returning to her former residence wouldn't be difficult for her; facing the daunting task of reducing a substantial debt and putting on a festival--all in one year--might.

"There were members on the board who felt strongly that, because of my history with the festival and the experiences that I've had since I left the festival, I might be the right person to help in this transition," Hughley says. "That transition has always been talked about, but I think that each time that you do a festival, you are so consumed doing the festival that it is hard to think about coming out of the festival and what could happen after that."

The NBAF has been so huge and encompassing that it was not uncommon for there to be six or more major events going on at once. Giddy festivalgoers would find themselves having to choose among the Artists Market, the African Marketplace, an author's reading and signing, a film screening, two or three theater productions, a couple of musical concerts, a dance performance, and a midnight jazz jam session, all in one day. Then they'd have to make the same choices again the next day and the next day. Festival attendees would leave happily--and understandably--exhausted.

Since the first festival, in 1988, more than 6,000 artists from around the world have exposed their works to more than 9 million people. The NBAF has presented a who's who of African-American artists, such as Maya Angelou, August Wilson, Max Roach, Abbey Lincoln, Sweet Honey in the Rock, Odetta, Wynton Marsalis, Pearl Cleage, Philadanco, Tito Puente, Cassandra Wilson, and Avery Brooks. The NBAF is unmatched in its presentation of African and African-American culture in the United States.

Although smaller in scope, this year's NBAF will still offer a dazzling array of high-quality activities. The kickoff weekend will take place at the Studioplex--a renovated warehouse in the Martin Luther King Jr. Historic District, which comprises loft offices, homes and artists' studios, as well as the new headquarters of the NBAF. The second weekend, the festival activities move to the Atlanta University Center, which is the home of Clark Atlanta University, Spelman College, Morehouse College and Morris Brown College. The popular African Marketplace, previously held at Piedmont Park, and the Artists Market, previously held at Greenbriar Mall, on the opposite side of the city, will now be within walking distance of each another.

"I'm really excited about that," Hughley says, "because not only is the AU Center the heart of African-American culture in the city because of the artists and cultural practitioners who have gone through that center, but it allows us to begin building relationships within those university systems in all different kinds of ways. I think it will be a really good marriage for both of us, and I think it will help people have a greater sense of festival."

The African Marketplace, featuring more than 100 vendors, will be outdoors. The Artists Market, a juried competition featuring works of more than 80 visual artists, will be indoors. Taking place at other venues in Atlanta will be a Children's Village, a food court, and performance stages featuring local, national and international musicians. There will be arts exhibits, film screenings, a doll exhibit, a health fair, a book fair, storytelling and meet-the-artist talks.