Colorado Black Arts Festival returns for a 38th year

July 4, 2024

Photo provided by The Colorado Black Arts Festival

Next week, the Colorado Black Arts Festival will return to Denver City Park, marking its 38th year sharing resources and supporting Black artists in their creative pursuits. This free community-wide celebration of Black culture, art and the African diaspora will happen July 12-14.  

Jaleesa McIntosh, the executive director of the Colorado Black Arts Festival, said attendees can expect a full lineup of visual and performing arts experiences. These will include an art garden, a parade, dance and genre-spanning musical performances and pavilion activities.

Photo provided by The Colorado Black Arts Festival

Black business owners, artists and vendors who apply to be part of the festival’s marketplace have the opportunity to make connections within the community, which McIntosh said has made the event a significant source of support for them.

“Not only are we just celebrating Black culture, but we're also celebrating and recirculating social wealth back into our community, and to our small Black business owners and things like that and bringing awareness to some of them,” she said.

McIntosh said the festival will also continue emphasizing the importance of health, wellness and Black hair care through some of its newer activities.

“In the last few years, we've added health and wellness and hair care to showcase areas in the community in which we want to share. Resources to help people as well as celebrate another artistic form, which is our hair and our crowns per se, what we call it for women and men of color,” she said.

For the Colorado community and the organization behind the Colorado Black Arts Festival, each year is a celebration of its longevity. McIntosh said that the festival began in 1986 when the artists who created it saw a need for more community visibility and support.

“In the ‘80s, you know, there wasn't a lot of opportunity afforded to artists of color, so the festival was created to support those artists,” she said.

According to the festival’s website, what started as a group of art lovers, advocates and artists sharing their work with a few people turned into a three-day event that reaches community members across Colorado.

McIntosh said that she grew up in Denver and attended this festival often. She said she has seen generations of people share it with their children over the years, and she thinks it’s important that Colorado’s cultural festivals continue to have a presence in the community for the sake of growth.

“Those cultural festivals really showcase and continue to sustain in the communities in which they serve because it shows that we are part of the unique cultural cloth and a social cloth as well, and we all contribute into society in some way, shape or form,” she said.

Community members can donate to the Colorado Black Arts Festival through the Colorado Gives Foundation. Donor contributions go toward making sure the festival can take place for years to come.

A list of rules, an event calendar and more information on each event can be found on the festival’s website.