By Howard Pousner
The National Black Arts Festival’s schedule is lean this year, the result of fund-raising realities amid a recession and a new leader’s push to focus the annual gathering’s programming.
This year’s National Black Arts Festival will run for 5 days, from July 14-18 at various locations throughout Atlanta.
Like last year’s edition, the upcoming festival will run five busy days, Wednesday through Sunday. Ambitious and diverse, the offerings range from a musical tribute to the late Curtis Mayfield and trombonist Wycliffe Gordon leading a big band performance of his score for the 1925 silent film “Body and Soul” to a “Brazil Fest” component organized in conjunction with the Consulate of Brazil in Atlanta. That festival within a festival imports the revered singer-composer Ivan Lins and the Afro-Brazilian percussion group Olodum, among other artists, from South America’s largest country.
Based last year at the Woodruff Arts Center, the fest is returning to Centennial Park and many ticketed events will be staged in venues within walking distance, such as the Rialto Center for the Arts.
“It’s a really walkable footprint,” said Neil A. Barclay, new NBAF executive producer and CEO. “That was the idea. We wanted to be able to have a home, frankly.”
In the park, visitors will find the popular 100-plus-booth International Marketplace, Children’s Education Village and concert Main Stage. That last attribute is particularly exciting to Barclay, who came to Atlanta from Pittsburgh after opening the August Wilson Center for African American Culture last year.
“There’s some great people on the park stages this year for free — Roy Ayers, Liz Wright, come on!” Barclay exclaimed. “People pay a lot of money to see both of those artists all over the country. To [be able to] see them for free onstage, outdoors is just tremendous.”
Vibraphonist Ayers plays at 9 p.m. Saturday, celebrating the legacy of the late Nigerian Afrobeat innovator Fela Kuti; Wright sings at 6:30 p.m. Sunday.
