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Celebrating African-American heritage with food, music and art, Oakland’s ninth annual Black-Eyed Pea Festival will be bigger and better at its new location in West Oakland’s Marston Campbell Park on September 14.

The free festival is suitable for all ages and presents African-American traditional Music from a variety of genres including straight-ahead jazz, New Orleans-style second-line, and zydeco. Our full lineup includes headliner Andre Thierry Accordion Soul Music (zydeco); MJ’s Brass Boppers (second-line); Valerie Troutt’s MoonCandy and Dimensions Dance Theatre.

The festival begins with a sacred recognition of the land through the Wakan-Wiya Two-Spirit Drum and Awon Ohun Omnira’s drumming homage to the African ancestors.

Especially for children

The BEPF offers engaging fun for children.

From 1:30pm to 2:30pm, the festival will feature entertainment for children by the youth members of the Prescott Circus, including stilt walking, juggling and somersaults. They will stay all day so the children can learn about the African roots of the circus arts.

Patanisha Williams offers arts and crafts for toddlers through early teens using cowpeas, drawing and painting with a focus on Ghana’s Adinkra symbol alphabet.

For adults, Bushmama offers an indigo dyeing workshop, which references the African origins of the plant, which was grown by enslaved Africans and eventually gave rise to the denim industry.

Handmade items by people of African descent for sale include paintings, mugs and prints by the festival’s poster designer, Karin Turner.

Come and eat

Local chefs from Ate O Clock Catering and Coco Breeze Restaurant offer soul food and Trinidadian dishes, including black-eyed peas. Hal Stephen’ offers festival fare – hot dogs and hamburgers – but also a vegan black-eyed pea patty.

Why a Black-Eyed Pea Festival?

“The Black-Eyed Pea is a metaphor for the resilience, creativity and collaboration of African-American culture,” said Wanda Ravernell, director of the Black-Eyed Pea Festival and founder of the Omnira Institute.

“We’re especially excited to have a wide range of genres on the program this year because it’s reminiscent of when Oakland’s Seventh Street was the ‘Harlem of the West,'” Ravernell said. Gentrification has nearly completed the work that the construction of the Grove Shafter Freeway, the BART tracks and the post office did in dividing a once-thriving black community.

The sound of music, the smell of food and the creativity of artists recall this time of prosperity. “Their work is entertaining, but it is also a history lesson and a healing one.”

The festival is sponsored by the Post News Group and receives support from the California Arts Council, the San Francisco Foundation, the Alliance for California Traditional Arts and the Center for Cultural Power.

“This festival brings our mission to life,” says Ravernell. “We want to highlight and preserve the cultural and spiritual traditions of African Americans and show how these traditions are connected to Africa and the African diaspora.”

The festival still has some places available for vendors of African origin who create their own works. The fee is $70. The City of Oakland requires vendors to have an Oakland business license and a temporary vendor permit.

For more information about sales opportunities or the festival in general, please visit our website at www.oakbepf.com, or email us at [email protected] or call us at (510) 332-5851.

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Who: The 9^th Annual Black-Eyed Pea Festival

When: Sat. 14 Sept. 2024

Where: Marston Campbell Park, 17^th and West Streets, Oakland CA, 94607

Time: 11:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.

What: Jazz, second-line bands, black entrepreneurs, soul food and a special pavilion for children

Admission free

Quote: “We celebrate the creativity and resilience of African American heritage through food, music and art.”

For more information, call 510-332-5851