Xiongyue Yu Journal Entry 7 - Summer of Soul

Summer of Soul is a documentary that brings back 50 years of rare footage from the Harlem Cultural Festival held in Mt. Morris Park in 1969.

 

This festival of revelry and partying was held in 1969, an important and tumultuous year for the black community, a year when everything seemed to be changing, a milestone year of change, awakening and breakthrough in music, style, and the relationship of black consciousness to society and politics.

 

Host and planner Tony Lawrence, with his amazing organizational and communication skills, successfully organized and staged the Harlem Cultural Festival, which became an unparalleled carnival of its time and served its other purposes - to distract people from the riots and panic and to to protect Harlem from destruction. And the festival did become an irreplaceable experience and memory in the minds of the 300,000 black people who participated.

 

With the support of Lawrence and then New York Mayor John Lindsey, the festival featured many of today's leading black musicians and groups, including B.B. King, Stevie Wonder, the Chambers Brothers, The 5th Dimension and more.

 

Different music shone on the stage and was cheered by millions of people. Whether it's jazz, gospel, blues or pop. The racial segregation that once existed in music was seen to be broken through, as the members of the Fifth Dimension said, "How can you color a sound". This summer of music, the summer of soul, about resistance, freedom, release and hope, was shown to all who experienced it in the way that people are best able to understand and express it - music.

 

In America, music has always been the popular element most closely associated with politics. There was sadness, chaos, and riots, but there was also an awakening of minds, a flourishing of music, and a flood of artistic creativity.

 

How Beautiful It Was.

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