The African American Festival is titled “Positively Dover” even though it draws people from all over the mid-Atlantic region. In years past it’s drawn upward of 20,000 visitors, and organizer Reuben Salters expects nothing different for the 19th annual festival, which will be held from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday, June 27, on Legislative Mall.
The Coasters of “Yakety Yak” and “Charlie Brown” fame will headline the event, which Salters describes as wonderful.
If all goes well there also will be a griot, a storyteller from the African nation of Mali who will tell the crowds about the Mali and Songhai empires. Adding to the cultural entertainment will be the Sankofa drummers and dancers performing pieces patterned on the dances of Guinea, Senegal, Ghana and the Ivory Coast. Most of them celebrate a birth, harvest or other events.
“Every one of our dances has a story,” Salters said. “And we feel that if the story is explained to you in advance, that you can see, through the movement and the drumming, the connection.”
As usual, there will be more than 100 vendors with clothing, artifacts, jewelry, services, food and more. One of the new vendors will be African Ancestry, a company that traces people’s maternal or paternal heritage to their African roots with the use of a DNA test.
Those who have never been to the festival shouldn’t be misled by the title. It is open to everyone and strives to celebrate multiple cultures.
“We’re adding a little variety,” Salters said. “We’re making it multicultural and multiethnic.”
That means adding diverse entertainers, like Celtic Harvest.
“Celtic Harvest is going to add a little Irish flavor to the African American Festival,” Salters said. “They’ll call me McReuben O’Salters before it’s over.”
So Salters invites everyone to come out and enjoy the day of entertainment and diversity.
“What I want to see is a crowd representing Dover,” he said.
The festival has brought people from all cultures in years past, said Natalie Way, festival board member and director of Dover’s Caring Community Coalition.
“It brings a sense of belonging and a sense of unity,” she said.
At Saturday’s event, attendees can donate to a building fund for the Inner City Cultural Center planned for West Street. The Inner City Cultural League is three-quarters of the way to its goal of raising $800,000 to get the new center built, according to Salters.
African American Festival Schedule
Saturday, June 27
10 a.m.: African drum and dance workshop
11 a.m.: Procession of elders, dignitaries and artists
11:30 a.m.: Sankofa African Dance Company honors elders
Noon: Christian Travelers Gospel Singers
12:30 p.m.: Donald Ashley’s Millenium
1 p.m.: Gary Clinton, bluegrass and blues
1:30 p.m.: Born Again Christian Jazz Group
2:30 p.m.: Trinidad and Tobago Steel Orchestra
3:30 p.m.: Celtic Harvest
4:30 p.m.: Sankofa African Dance Company
5 p.m.: The Jheno Connection, jazz and blues
6 p.m.: The Coasters
Email Sarika Jagtiani at sarika.jagtiani@doverpost.com
