7/15/2010 - West Side Leader
By Kathleen Folkerth
Con Funk Shun to perform at Lock 3 event
The Akron African-American Cultural Festival will celebrate its 30th anniversary with a weekend of activities July 24-25.
Historically known as the Lane Field Festival, the festival this year will take place at Lock 3 Park July 25, thanks to a partnership with the city of Akron.
According to one of the co-chairs, Debra Calhoun, of West Akron, Akron City Councilman Marco Sommerville (D-Ward 3) was approached about moving the festival to mark the anniversary and he supported it, helping to pave the way for the move this year.
“It seemed to be a win-win all around,” Calhoun said. “It gets a strong group inside Lock 3, and it’s a win-win for the organization because it gives us a chance to diversify our reach.”
The festival is a project of the Akron African-American Cultural Association, which held the first festival and parade in 1980. The local event is now the second oldest African-American festival in Ohio, Calhoun said.
The event is a way to showcase the diversity of the local African-American community as well as its businesses and organizations.
“It gives you a bit of a taste of the culture and is an opportunity for our partners and observers to interface with Africans literally from all over the world,” Calhoun said.
Activities will take place from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. July 25 with a focus on the theme of Fi-hankare, a West African concept that is a symbol of brotherhood, safety, security, completeness and solidarity.
As part of that, organizers plan to place an emphasis on health with screenings and information available specific to the black community.
“We will have a health pavilion with information and testing opportunities for prostate cancer and HIV and lead-abatement information, as well as information on heart disease, which is a big killer in the black community and of black women in particular,” Calhoun said.
Vendors will be on hand with T-shirts and art as well as food, including fish, barbecue ribs and desserts such as pies and cakes.
On the main stage, musical acts will perform throughout the day and lead up to the headlining act, rhythm and blues act Con Funk Shun. The group earned four gold records and one platinum record during its heyday in the 1970s and ‘80s.
Admission to the festival is $5 after 5 p.m. that day.
Prior to the festival, three activities will take place July 24.
The first is a walk raising awareness of breast cancer by Sisters With a Vision. The event will take place at 7 a.m. at Lane Field, which is located behind the Odom Branch Library on Vernon Odom Boulevard.
Also at Lane Field at noon, the founders of the festival will be honored and will gather to remember what led to the founding of the annual event.
“We want to acknowledge them and let them reflect on why they started the festival,” Calhoun said.
That night at the Akron Woman’s City Club, 732 W. Exchange St., the founders will again be honored at a dinner at 8 p.m. The cost is $25, or $45 a couple, and reservations can be made by calling 330-431-7203.
Founders who will be honored are Malcolm Costa, John Wilson, Bennie and Maggie Coston, Summit County Councilman Cazzell Smith (D-District 5), Nathaniel Roy Hodoh, Herman Oden, Samuel and Ethel Chambers, John Fuller, Isatou Sagnia, Shevaughanda Williams, Darryl Tukufu, state Rep. Vernon Sykes (D-District 44) and the late Ernest Majadi.
Calhoun said organizers are looking forward to all events but expect the festival will return to its roots at Lane Field next year.
“The neighborhood was so gracious to us,” she said.
She added that organizers didn’t feel a parade would work at the Lock 3 site so that event has been put on hold this year. It will likely return if the festival is again held at Lane Field, Calhoun said.
For more information about the event, go to www.akronafricanculture.org or call Calhoun at 330-836-1527.
