Another View; #604; Heritage Festival

You You You You

You You It's an annual gathering of African-American people and we get a chance to really appreciate and see our craftsmanship and

Socialization and binding is good for the youngsters, the storytelling of education or recreation or meets all the needs of the family. For the past five years, thousands have come to the Garden State Arts Center to celebrate the rich and proud culture of African-Americans. The African-American Arts and Heritage Festival is one of 12 ethnic celebrations sponsored by the Garden State Parkway Cultural Center Fund. This year's fifth annual celebration believed to be the largest in the state attracted some 10,000 people. Hi, I'm Belinda Morton, welcome to another view. For those of you who may have missed a wonderful salute to African-American Heritage, here's a chance to take a look and talk about some of the highlights.

My wife woke me up this morning and told me we were going to the the African Fest. So what brings you out here today? All the festivities, celebration, the crowd, the crafts, it's the annual gathering of African-American people and we get a chance to really appreciate and see our craftsmanship and socialization and binding is good for the youngsters. Let's go.

So you guys have a good time today? You have to move out and get up alone. You have a real good time? I can't hear you. They have to tell me, what is this? Quick, what is this one? Come on, come on! The best ribs in the world, very good. It's a good thing, I like what it's behind and you do very good. My daughter says, money, but we should have a nice event here and I enjoy cooking.

Thank you. Thank you. That's great. Thank you. Too many of our youngsters are not familiar with the culture and the arts and the abilities that we have as black people and I think this is one of the outlets and one of the sources of getting the information that our children need. Thank you.

We'll have more festival highlights when we return. Please stay with us. Welcome back to another view. We're highlighting the annual African American Heritage Festival in Homedale. We'll show you clips featuring some of the festival's highlights. Joining me to talk about some of the highlights, Sharon Brown, chair of the festival's main event, the Plaza Show, former chair, Tonya Greenwood, and founder and current president, Clinton Crocker.

Sharon, first of all, every year you're always busy planning the main event, the Plaza Show. What was your reaction when you saw the clip that we showed you at the beginning of the show? Well, my reaction was both thrilling and exciting. Having been working there for the last five years and doing the Plaza Show, I'm there at 7.30 in the morning, I work with the Plaza Show until 8. And I never really got a chance to really get out, see the festival, see what a great job we're doing. So it's just exciting to be able to sit back and see that we are doing all the things that I thought we were doing while I was working. What about seeing the children and seeing the fun that they were having? Well, that's very exciting because as you know, the children are our future. And we at the African American Festival wanted to be sure that we programmed for our young people so that they would have a chance to not go out and only experience the educational and cultural events, but to enjoy themselves and the family. Did they look like they were having fun? They had a great time. In fact, they always asked me, will you be here tomorrow?

Clinton, how did you come up with this idea? Well, for many years, I would pass by on the parkway and looked at the large sign pointing to the number of different festivals that the Arts Center would produce. The Irish Festival, the Italian Festival, but never did we see a sign that said it would be the African American Festival. So I called Julian Robinson and Julian Robinson is one of the commissioners of the highway authority and the only African American that sits on that body. I called Julian and I said, Julian, why don't we have an African American Festival? He said, Clinton, we don't have one. Why don't you start one? You're fully qualified. That's all you did. And so I did it. I called a number of my friends together and these people here are very qualified. They're committed to people and to our people. And that's how we started. Did you run into many obstacles trying to pull it together? Many, many, many different problems. We had to not only get the people, but to show that we had a commitment to doing this, not only one year, two years, three years, and to raise a level of thinking that we could pull off something of this statute and magnitude. Because a lot of money was being placed in vacuous by the cultural center fund. And so we had to produce and we have produce. Are they satisfied with what you've produced? Very satisfied. Very satisfied.

We get commended by a number of people all over the state. We had people at our festival this year from far away as Delaware and Maryland. I know. I talked to them. So we're doing quite well. There's an awful lot of food displayed on that day. Is it food inspected by some form of inspector? I mean, how does a person coming to the festival know that they can eat that kind of food and not be fearful of getting ill? Yes, the food is inspected by the New Jersey state food inspectors safety inspectors. We have the fire marshals there to check the equipment and no food can be prepared ahead of time. All of the food that you see at the festival is prepared on the premises. And they must pass inspection and they get a certificate prior to being able to sell any food to the public. Okay, Tonya, what types of goals you as former chair of the festival? What types of goals do the chair, the chair people try to accomplish each year when they take on putting on this festival?

Each year, as you know, we meet year round. We meet on a monthly basis. And after we had the first festival, we did an assessment and the lessons learned. We tried to expand the festival to include the entire family. And as Sharon mentioned, we started having the youth games, which was an addition at the time that I became chairperson. We also highlighted youth performers. In the plaza show that Sharon chaired, normally we would have semi professionals or people who were accomplished. But we felt that we needed to highlight our youth performers, which were the ages of six to 12. And that was a new addition. So each year, the chair tries to use the lessons learned from the previous year and expanded to include the entire family. Sharon, you go all over. I understand and try to recruit people for the festival in terms of performers and stuff like that. How do you do this?

Well, I tell you, it takes a lot of time on a Saturday evening or a Saturday morning. During your spare time. During my spare time. I tried to get to the surrounding university campuses, the schools. New Jersey has a lot of talent shows for young people. I tried to attend those shows. And we tend to pick up a lot of young people, diversified core of talent. And this worked very well for us. Before we continue, we're going to take a look at another highlight. Let's take a look at the steel band that was at the festival. We're going to take a look at the steel band that was at the festival.

We're going to take a look at the steel band that was at the festival. We're going to take a look at the steel band that was at the festival. We're going to take a look at the steel band that was at the festival. What a great group. Sharon, how did you find that group? Well, I attended a lot of other ethnic festivals. Who are they? They're the Jersey Pan Steel Orchestra. They're sponsored by the Woodson Foundation that concentrates on minority programming and cultural talent.

And I saw them at a Newark festival and they were fantastic. They were dying of light. They sort of projected the African Caribbean roots that were somehow or another agrounded in. And I thought they would be a fine plus for this year. What do you think about the steel band, Clinton? I think it's really outstanding. And to begin with, Sharon is totally qualified to do something of this nature. She did this in Detroit and when she let it be known that she was interested in joining our committee, I said, well, Sharon, what have you done? And so forth. And she told me about the types of things she did in Detroit before she came to New Jersey. And I said, you're totally with it. And so she has been, her committee has interviewed and listened to a number of different artists. Others who are so-so, some others who are great. And she said, yes, I want you or no, I don't want you. And how much do you charge? We don't have much money and so forth and so on.

But she has really been outstanding in what she has been doing. Tanya, I know that music made you want to move. And I really wanted to move because, as Sharon said, being on the committee, we never really get a chance to enjoy the festival. We work very hard, we come in early in the morning, and we have the duties of making sure that all of the people who attend the festival enjoy the festival. So as a result, I only heard a portion of that and listening to it, I'm trying to be very polite and sit very still. We don't want you to, we want you to listen up a bit. We want you to dance or do something. Well, you guys also had a number of artists there, great artwork on display. I believe you got them from all over, all over the state, outside of the street. Inside the Tri-State area. Before we take our next break, let's take a look at some of the beautiful artwork displayed at the festival. It's from feeling. If I see an object, and it gives me a certain feeling, artistic balance, color, I want to paint it.

I used to see this group of men when I used to develop photographs. I have them processed at this particular establishment. I came out the door on this particular corner. There was always a group of men congregating and having a lot of fun. I came out one day and took a picture of them, and everybody vanished, but this particular one. I got this group, they asked me what was I doing. So I'm taking this picture to paint you, and I'm going to put you in the New York Museum. I thought I was a joke and call me a lot of names. I painted the picture, I did have it at the New York Museum, and I had them all there, and they were very proud of me. Thank you.

We're continuing our look at some highlights of the African American Heritage Festival. For many of us who grew up in inner cities, jumping rope was one of the few things we could do outside. Rob Jumping has now taken on a whole new meaning. Let's take a look. Is that jumping or is that jumping? I can't believe that. Who are they?

They are jump sister jump, and they're a double Dutch group that we've had appearing on our program for the last five years. Tell our viewers how old those women are. The youngest is 32, and the oldest is 43, and the crowd loves them. Now, double Dutch jumping, as we were talking during the break, was a big thing when we were growing up in our neighborhoods. Clinton, you were saying that you can remember young girls jumping double Dutch? As a former teacher, I would remember youngsters on the playground, jumping rope, double Dutch, and singing along. They had no recording to go along with it, and they would sing along. And these little songs have gone up through the ages, from mothers to daughters and so forth and so on. It's really an outstanding continuation of our heritage.

That says a lot about our culture, something that has gone on. Did you jump double Dutch when you were gay? Yes. That was one of the things we were talking on the break. We had double Dutch, we had hopscotch, all of the things that you did without anything that you bought from a store. You were more creative. As Clinton said, we made up our own songs as we double Dutch, and it was also exercised. So that was the beginning of our physical fitness programs. But it was something for the girls. That was what the fellows always did. My name was one of the guys, and jumped awesome. Yes, my neighborhood too. What's exciting about the double Dutch is that all of the people every year look forward to joining double Dutching and watch the double Dutch ladies, because they can identify with that. It's lots of fun, and it is an art in its own way. Do you feel like you accomplished a lot in this year's festival? Not only in a way of attendance. Not only we have attracted some of the best artists that you can find in this local New England Middle East area.

And so that we are people, people are calling us to participate. Participate. As Sharon. People are calling and standing in line waiting to participate already. What will you strive for next year? Next year I would like to see a continuation of the vision that we like to have, which is to give the African community a sense of where they are, where they were and where they're going. And I would personally like to see an extension throughout the grounds of small entertainment areas so that we can give our people of New Jersey even more exposure with their talents. I like to make a suggestion as far as the displays of the different things you can buy. I found this year they were a little close together. Could you spread them out a little bit next year? Yes, we've already addressed that as a matter of fact our chairperson Ron Mathis is working on that and we're planning to get an additional tent possibly so that there is more space because the people did, that was one of the comments. We did have a survey form at the festival and that was one of the comments.

We want to mention one more thing that this year for the first time in the history of the festival. People from the community, African American people who've made contributions in the community were honored, myself being one of them. What was the point of doing that this year? Well, we've had people through the period of 100, 200 years who have gone through life and contributed an awful lot to our society and they've never been honored and not even reflected sometimes even in our textbooks. I spoke recently at a conference when calling attention to some of the achievements of African Americans. We and they were honored many years after their death. We want to honor those who have contributed greatly to our society today. Those who have contributed today, we want to honor them today, not many years after they've gone and that's why we did that. We also felt that it was a way to reach out to the various communities because the ones who were honored this year came from all over the state of New Jersey. The committee members were asked to talk about the people at their immediate communities and give recommendations as to who they felt had made a contribution.

We had people from everywhere, all over the state, from all walks of life. Traditionally, when you have honors, it's always someone who's known by a lot of people. We had a lot of grassroots people who had worked very hard, who had worked with children, who had done things that maybe other people weren't even aware of and their names were recommended and we felt that they should be recognized by others. Now will you be doing that again next year? That'll be a good one. That was a very positive addition because it allowed the African Americans festival to honor those people who are not always on the television, to honor those people who give without question, to let the community know that they're indeed people like yourself. And I think that was a big plus with the community. Did the honorees express something? I mean, I heard that a lot of people were like, wow, they were so, so elated knowing that this organization was honoring them. Sure. Because it had never happened before. And again, each year we tried to improve and we add so that it's good for everyone who attends and for everybody.

Now that's one of the reasons that we have rotated the chairmanship because one person might not have all of the ideas of creative ability. Tonya was our second chairman and I was the first one and Ron Mathis is. I was going to say we don't want to forget Ron Mathis. He was unable to join us today but he has put an awful lot into this whole celebration. He brings another perspective and Tonya bought a different perspective than I bought to the festival and I'm sure that in time to come Sharon will bring another perspective to the festival and we have that continuation. So when do you hit the road Sharon? Well, I hit the road two months ago. The day after the festival I received a lot of phone calls, a lot of information. And each weekend or perhaps once or twice a week, I tried to get out to other events, other talent shows, universities. So it's an everyday thing.

But I wanted to say this. That feeling that you were talking about, that the arteries felt, is the feeling that the people leave the festival with, that they feel that they have experienced a great emotional and self-esteem experience. And they take it back home with them and that to me is very important, very important for that day. So you guys were all happy with what you've accomplished this year. It's a class A act and we plan to continue that whole idea as long as we're able to. Thank you very much for joining us. We hope you've enjoyed our cultural celebration. We'd like to give special thanks to our cameraman Jim Hamilton and Aubrey Kaufman and production assistance Marcy Palmer and Hinerietta Parker. For helping us pull all of this together. If you'd like to comment about this show, your letters are welcome. All correspondents should be sent to another view, CN777, Trenton, New Jersey, 08625.

You can also reach us at 609-530-5252. For another view, I'm Belinda Morton. Thanks for joining us. Thank you very much for joining us. Thank you very much for joining us. I won't break your heart now, I'm on your side. I'm on your side, I'm on your side.

I'm on your side, I'm on your side. You, we need to have each other, we need to be on each other's side. Thank you very much for joining us. Thank you very much.