International African Arts Festival

Founded in (1971), is the country's original annual festival that centers African art, culture, and family. The International African Arts Festival ( ) began in 1971 as a fundraiser for the Uhuru Sasa Shule ("Freedome Now School), a community-based initiative that educated youth and adults about African culture. The fundraiser was a small festival wi

th about 20 arts and crafts vendors, local entertainers, and food prepared by parents of the students who attended Uhuru Sasa School. That early format of integrating entertainment, food, and marketplace drew increasing crowds annually and the event became known as the African Street Carnival. Four years later, the carnival was moved to the field at Boys and Girls High School in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn. There, the event became the African Street Festival. Today, the event is known as the International African Arts Festival and has an estimated annual audience of 75,000. While still held in Brooklyn, The Festival is now in its third transition to a larger venue. The original approach of showcasing local folk arts and entertainment has remained, yet has simultaneously grown to include artists and groups such as Erykah Badu, Ms. Lauryn Hill, Pharoah Sanders, Sun Ra, The Mighty Sparrow, Fela Kuti, KRS-1, Doug E. Fresh, Living Colour, Third World, Herbie Hancock, Mtume, Roy Ayers, Asase Yaa African American Dance Theater, and many other nationally and internationally revered artists.