By Gilberto Campa
On June 29th, 1969, at Mount Morris Park (now known as Marcus Garvey Park) located in the heart of Harlem, The Harlem Cultural Festival took place. It ran for three weeks and was put together by the charismatic singer/promoter Tony Lawrence, along with support from the City Of New York who brought these incredible artists together. The show (which was free for everyone) was created to help ease growing tensions in the African American community at the time (amongst other important issues) but more importantly, the festival’s true purpose was to celebrate African American music, life, and culture. With an attendance of over 300,000 people and security courtesy of The Black Panthers (since the police refused to provide any) for the event, you really see just how big these shows were.
The artists that performed were some of the biggest names in African American music at the time with Stevie Wonder, Sly & The Family Stone, Nina Simone, The Fifth Dimension, Gladys Knight & The Pips, B.B. King, David Ruffin, Mahalia Jackson, Chuck Jackson, Mongo Santamaria, Ray Barretto, and Moms Mabley, just to name a few. Many of these artists were out before I was even conceived but being raised by my father who is heavily involved in music and has a deep knowledge and love for these artists helped to shape my musical foundation growing up. In addition, going back and looking up these timeless songs during the last fifteen years just helped to add to the experience.
The way that this documentary came together is really an unbelievable story, ALL of the footage in the film is being seen in its entirety for the first time in over 50 years. Hal Tulchin who produced and filmed the entire festival had these incredible reels and performances in his basement just collecting dust as nobody wanted to buy the rights of the festival to have it be shown (for whatever reason). After seeing the documentary, it’s criminal that this footage is only making its way out now.
Thank God that Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson who got to see the footage from the producer of the documentary Robert Fyvolent, had the passion and care to give this festival its rightfully deserved moment to shine. Even though another similar concert also occurred during that same time, summer, and year in upstate New York, it’s wrong to say that the Harlem Cultural Festival was just a “Black Woodstock”. Being a fan of both festivals, much of the messages, imagery, and overall feeling of THCF feels unique. This serves more as a companion piece to Woodstock but very much so stands on its own two feet.
This also serves as a time capsule to a very important period as African Americans in the United States during the 1960s were going through a very troubling experience as emotions were at an all-time high (for many reasons). The assassinations of Malcolm X, Robert Kennedy, John F. Kennedy, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. each took their toll. And those events are discussed and highlighted at length in the movie serving as a setup for the performances. More particularly in New York City the issues of poverty, crime’s against African Americans, drug use, and lack of support from the Government were all escalating to create another hostile summer in the city, which is something city officials did not want to have. The emotion behind the performances during those weeks are experienced front and center, you got an understanding that the artist and attendees at the festival knew that something important was happening (and it wasn’t the 1969 Moon Landing).
I appreciated Questlove’s commitment to let the music and the artist dictate the pace as you got to see most of the performances in their entirety, so the audience can understand and feel the emotion behind everything. In those performances, there are few that really stand out and gave me chills as I was seeing them (Nina Simone, Stevie Wonder, and Mahalia Jackson in particular). As a great artist himself for the last thirty years with The Roots Questlove really expressed his care and love for everyone involved in this project, as he himself grew up with these artists and songs in Philadelphia. If the music was the heartbeat of the film, the soul of the movie is the community of Harlem as you get to see the mixture of young and old people, blacks and Latinos, men and women all coming together to celebrate the wonderful culture they all share. This documentary will take you through multiple emotional stages, and oftentimes those are the best ones.
Questlove as a first-time director impressed me with the choices he made in the pacing and editing of the documentary. His masterful awareness to drop the needle at the right time really works in this documentary. The choice to interview a handful of the attendees along with some of the artists and seeing their genuine, heartfelt reactions to the footage was beautiful to see, almost bittersweet. The Summer of Soul can be approached by anyone no matter the type of music they are into, as genres range from R&B, Soul, Salsa, Gospel, Jazz, Rock, and just about everything else. The festival almost feels like it never happened since a few of the people that were interviewed were shocked at the footage they saw. Almost days after the festival was finished not too much was said or mentioned of it. In many ways, it’s a miracle that this movie was even made but this incredible celebration of Black culture will leave you feeling happy and hopeful for the future. Now more than ever is the perfect time to experience this amazing, important, and historic show in the way it was supposed to be seen, on the biggest screen and with the best sound possible.
The Verdict