Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson’s directorial debut “Summer of Soul (… Or, if the revolution couldn’t be televised)” brings to light astonishingly beautiful shots of a criminally overlooked festival with an undeniable historical impact. For 50 years, 45 hours of footage from the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival in New York lay in a basement and remained unseen … Read more
In the summer of 1969, a historic Black Festival took place: the Harlem Cultural Festival. The concert series was filled with stars from blues, jazz, R&B and soul and attracted over 300,000 visitors. But due to the ongoing eradication of black historical contributions, many have never heard of it. Fortunately, 52 years later, Ahmir “Questlove” … Read more
Twenty years later I received a message asking me to meet with my two future producers Robert Fyvolent and David Dinerstein about a Harlem cultural festival that was like a “Black Woodstock”. Immediately the music snob inside of me said, “I’ve never heard of that before.” So I looked it up on the internet. It’s … Read more