My window to Africa has broken.
Chicago’s 35-year-old African Festival of the Arts has been postponed. The four-day annual festival, hosted in Washington Park on the city’s South Side, was scheduled for Labor Day weekend. Now, it’s off.
“This difficult decision is due to the rising cost of production, coupled with our commitment to keeping admissions affordable for our community,” read the statement issued last week by its founder, “Patrick” Saingbey Woodtor, president of Africa International House USA. “Over the past few years, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, we have faced numerous challenges that have affected our ability to host the 2024 festival to our high standards.”
The sponsors will regroup, and the event will return next Labor Day weekend, Woodtor promised.
At one time, the African Festival of the Arts hosted more than 200,000 visitors. Last year, only around 25,000 people came, Chicago ABC affiliate WLS-Ch. 7 reported.
I am bereft. It’s my favorite summer festival and comes as I grasp the wisps of a fleeting summer. It is a well-trodden path to my African heritage and culture.
This Chicago institution going dark is a gloomy sign of inflationary and changing times. The Silver Room’s block party, a massive South Side confab, was canceled after 18 years. Last month, the popular Ribfest in Naperville was shut down, citing high operating costs. The Hyde Park Summer Fest was canceled in May.
The African Festival of the Arts has been dubbed the single largest African-centered event in the United States. It paused during the COVID-19 crisis, then returned in 2022.
“Attendees are transported across the Diaspora with interactive engagements, vibrant drumming, museum quality and collectible artifacts, colorful and rich hand-woven fabric and textile, and other program spaces and interactive spaces,” Africa International House noted.
The fair unites Africans and African American culture from across the Diaspora, from Ghana and Ivory Coast to Brooklyn and Chicago. Brimming with music, dance, arts and culture, it’s an “African Village” that returns us to the homeland. This Labor Day, the green grassy knolls of Washington Park will remain bare.
The news hits me especially hard, as it follows the loss of my beloved mother, who passed away last year. My mama was an Africa aficionado. She traveled extensively on the African continent, and the festival was where she acquired much of her prized art collection. On our mother-daughter sojourns to the fest, she introduced me to the African traders who touted their rarefied wares from far-flung places. Juicy amber beads, textured textiles, regal tribal masks and sculptures, all made by loving Black hands. We would jaunt about the sprawling fair for hours, hanging out at her favorite booths, catching up with family and friends.
The traders knew “Mama Gwen.” When they saw her coming, they would steel themselves for hard bargaining. We first connected to the fair through Window to Africa, a groundbreaking boutique in Hyde Park’s Harper Court. Mama would visit and chat with Adedayo “Dayo” Laoye, an acclaimed Nigerian-born artist known for his marvelous pastels on paper that depict royal and spiritual figures of African descent. Longtime collectors flock to the fest every year to admire his latest works.
“It’s at the festival I realize how much of Africa is still in the Africans in America,” Laoye once told me.
This moment has been coming. In recent years, I noticed the festival was fading. Our favorite jewelry vendors were not returning. The ticket prices were jumping, and the crowds were thinning.
Last Labor Day weekend was my first without Mama. I had to go, in homage to her. I arrived first thing on Saturday morning, to get a jump on the shopping. While it was past the scheduled opening time, the gates were closed.
Volunteers scurried around. No one had keys. No one had answers. I waited, along with about 40 other visitors, for more than a half-hour in the hot sun. Someone finally opened the gates. Once inside, the crowds were sparse. As I walked around the fair, I sensed things would never be the same.
If only Mama were here, I thought. Her hands would be on her hips, demanding answers.
The sad answer has come.
I feel for the artists, makers and musicians who won’t be able to share their creations this Labor Day.
“Over 3 decades, the African Festival of the Arts has been an outlet for Black Artists to showcase our creativity,” Laoye wrote me after the announcement. “As many Artists, Artisans, and designers many of our clientele are through the Fest. It’s really unfortunate that it won’t take place this year.”
The community is “disappointed,” he added, but “we hope the African Festival of the Arts attracts the necessary support it really needs and deserves to be back next year.”
Others weighed in on social media.
“I’m saddened by the Black cultural landmarks that dried up like raisins in the sun and have been rebranded or were just de-existed. Thank you Patrick, S.K. Woodtor and your teams for your contribution. May the energy of renewal rise up,” Hunter Adams wrote on Facebook.
Armel Peel urged, “Need to get a new group; give the elders a rest.”
Indeed. Woodtor is getting up in age. His brilliant creation and heroic support of the festival should be cherished and acclaimed.
The African Festival of the Arts must be updated and upgraded. Otherwise, it will meet the demise of other treasured Chicago institutions and never return.
Laura Washington is a political commentator and longtime Chicago journalist. Her columns appear in the Tribune each Monday. Write to her at LauraLauraWashington@gmail.com.
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