African American Heritage Festival
2025 Festival
Celebrate Charlotte’s Black history and culture during the annual free African American Heritage Festival. This year’s festival will be titled "Black Country" and emphasize the Black experience in rural Mecklenburg County over time. Through performances, guest speakers, panels, and community-focused events for the whole family, we hope you can experience the richness of African American heritage and culture in the Charlotte region - and have fun while doing it!
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Awards
Previous Years:
2021 Festival
The 2021 African American Heritage Festival was virtual, but we still had some amazing experiences.
Charlotte Ballet Dance Demo
Take a lunch break and dance along with the Charlotte Ballet! The Charlotte Ballet hosted a livestreamed dance demonstration featuring West African dance traditions. The program explored movement, music, costuming, and more.
Lunch & Learn: What’s in a Name?
Listen in to a conversation with Charlotte community history Tom Hanchett, JCSU archivist Brandon Lunsford and representatives from Tuskeegee and Fisk universities as they discuss the origins of the Rosenwald Fund, which helped build thousands of schools for African American children in the South during the Jim Crow era.
Lakeetha Blakeney: Bridging Then & Now
Playwright and actress Lakeetha Blakeney joins the Museum for a livestreamed conversation that explores African American food, hair, and fashion as they were, as they are now, and how they could be in the future.
JazzArts Concert
JazzArts performed a small-ensemble concert in-person at the Museum, featuring a musical timeline of genres and styles created by Black musicians beginning in the 19th century to today. The concert was exclusive to attendees, but you can watch a clip on our social media here.
Click/tap here to see a clip from our social media.
Afternoon on the Grounds
The Museum welcomed back visitors for African American Heritage Festival! Visitors learned about Charlotte’s Black history and culture on the final day of the Festival. Performances included the “Chronicles of Adam,” a powerful first-person historical narrative with interpreter Dontavius Williams as well as an interactive drum circle with Drums 4 Life. Our brand-new Siloam School exhibit opened. The exhibit explores the story of the historic Rosenwald-era school. And with help from our partners at Charlotte Is Creative, four local artists brought history to life with their unique portraits of notable Black Charlotteans. Featured local artists are Makayla Binter, Abel Jackson, Marcus Kiser, and Ricky Singh. Read more about the paintings from Charlotte Is Creative.
2024 Festival
Our 2024 festival highlighted Black education in the Charlotte region in celebration of the Museum relocating and restoring the historic Siloam School. The festival featured am HBCU college fair, behind-the-scenes tours of the Siloam School, and more.