The 34th Annual African Festival of the Arts returns Sept. 1-4, Labor Day weekend, to Chicago's historic Washington Park in the heart of the South Side's Museum District. The city's largest celebration of global black culture re-emerges, following a two-year hiatus due to the covid pandemic, under the theme "Back to Culture. Back to Tradition!" Experience Africa's art, sights, tastes, sounds, and spirituality in a - safe and gated - replicated African village!
Festival History
Festival Artists of the year
Nii Oti - 1993, 1995, 2002, 2015, 2017
Dayo Laoye - 1999, 2009
Frank Frazier- 1994, 2018
Samuel Akainyah- 1998, 2005
Former Festival Honorees - Grand Babas and Yeyes
Maudlyne Ihejirika, Chicago Sun-Times Urban Affairs Reporter
Hosea Sanders, ABC7 anchor
Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr., American Civil Rights Activist
Mrs Jacqueline Jackson, Civil Rights Advocate
Toni Preckwinkle, Cook County Board President,
Dr. Carol Adams-CEO, DuSable Museum of African American History,
Joan Abena Brown-founder ETA Performing Arts Center,
Merri Dee (WGN-TV, Ret.), media personality
Herb Kent (WVAZ) , media personality
Richard Steele (WBEZ) media personality
Warner Sanders (NBC- ret.)
George Daniels- music industry icon
Chris Gardner-Stock Broker entrepreneur
Congressman Bobby L. Rush, 1st District, Illinois
Bill Garth-publisher Chicago Citizen Newspaper Group
Dorothy Leavell, publisher, The Crusader Newspapers
Emil Jones-former Ill. Senate President
Chuck Bowen-former executive assistant to the Mayor of Chicago
Carrie Austin, 34th Ward Alderman
Dorothy Brown-Clerk of the Circuit Court
Rev. Willie Barrow-Rainbow PUSH Coalition
Garth Fagan-Founder Garth Fagan Dance Company
Oscar Brown, Jr.- singer, songwriter, playwright and actor
Jacob Carruthers- founder Kemetic Institute of Chicago/ Center for Inner City Studies
Dr. Margaret Burroughs-artist and co-founder DuSable Museum of African American History