2014 Umoja Festival: "Uniting" Upper East Tennessee's Communities

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"Umoja."

In Swahili, it means "unity."

On the weekend of August 8th and 9th, the 2014 Umoja Festival "united" hundreds of people along the streets of downtown Johnson City.

It's the 18th weekend of people learning African-American culture, and the diversity of East Tennessee diversity. The festival encompasses most of downtown, and gave visitors a chance to experience the social forms, beliefs and excitements of other ways of life. Umoja brings those experiences to people in upper East Tennessee.

Its beginnings were a lot more modest.

"It all began one weekend 18 years ago at the Carver Recreation Center," says Umoja Festival chairman Ralph Davis. "We had just finished a clean-up of the black community.. some of us were members of the local NAACP and the Concerned Citizens Group, and we were trying to save the center itself. At the end of the weekends, we would have a picnic there on the grounds, mostly just fun and games.. It was always a good time, and folks in the community would come in or stop by, to meet up with friends and a good time."

Davis says, the get-togethers went on for two or three years.

"We decided to expand it a bit and have some music, because more of the community were wanting to get involved," he says. "We noticed all the festivals around on the East Coast and around, and we decided to try and have a full-blown event here ourselves.. just a neighborhood gathering, so we started one down at Carver."

Unlike other Umoja festivals around the country, Johnson City's celebration of African cultural arts has always been held on the second weekend of August, as close to August 8th as possible.

"That's the date of the Emancipation Proclamation in the state of Tennessee," says Davis. "We knew the Greeneville community celebrated freedom for the slaves in the state on that day, and we wanted to commemorate that date, too here in Johnson City. The festival just kept growing and growing, and it was beginning to outgrow the Carver Rec Center."

FLOODING ON BRUSH CREEK IN JOHNSON CITY - PHOTO COURTESY WJHL-TV

A huge flood along a branch of Brush Creek that flows alongside West Market Street in Johnson City, soon put an end to festivals at Carver Rec.

"Folks kept saying 'why don't you have it at Freedom Hall (Civic Center)," Davis remembers. "That did seem to be a better place for us, so we started holding the festival there. Still, it just kept getting bigger and bigger. All of a sudden, folks started asking 'well, why don't you just move downtown where all the other festivals are held?' We approached the city, and the rest is, as they say, history."

This year, the Umoja Festival is celebrating its 5th year downtown of celebrating cultural arts.

"I would say we're probably more music and crafts-oriented, for the most part," says Davis. "We try to have every thing from bluegrass to rap.. we cover the genre. Only a few years ago, did we try to appeal to different crowds who attend the festival, and we did that by having an adult main stage, and a young adult stage. That way, we could have crossover between the generations."

Between the stages, visitors were able to stop many booths along Market, Main, and Roan Streets.  Most of them were food vendors, featuring everything from barbeque pork ribs, the always-popular whiting fish, tacos and brats, to funnel cakes, pastries and other carnival-type foods.  Soft drinks, including water, tea and lemonade were also in high demand, because of the rising heat of the day.

A special event of the festival was a storytelling booth.  Tucked in one of the several alcoves between streets in downtown Johnson City, was the Majestic Park Gazebo, where storytellers held the crowds spellbound with tales of interest, some of them made up, others taken from real life.  The storytelling booth was sponsored by East Tennessee State University, in conjunction with its ETSU Storytelling Program.  According to the school website, potential students who pursue the school's Master of Arts degree in storytelling,  may "concentrate on performance skills for the sake of their present or intended professional storytelling career, or they may focus on aspects of applied storytelling, to enhance their roles as teachers, ministers, counselors, community workers, corporate trainers, healers, parents, grandparents, or any combination thereof."

"The addition of the storytelling booth is unique to our festival," says Davis.  "The ETSU storytelling area adds a dimension nobody else has.  The school builds its program around our festival, and they bring in national storytellers that we would never see, unless we go over to Jonesborough during the National Storytelling Festival they have every year."

Friday's activities featured the traditional "Call of the Drums," and a 5-K run.  Other than the parade, Saturday's event were geared mostly towards music, and of course, the food  (EDITOR'S NOTE:  SEE THE OTHER ARTICLES BELOW FOR ACTIVITIES AT THE MAIN STAGE AND THE YOUNG ADULT STAGE).

As the Umoja Festival grows in size every year, Davis says plans for the future are clear.  The event has grown into a full-blown festival.

"We are slowly getting to our goal of being multi-cultural," he says.  "There are still have some things to improve on.  We would love to have more Hispanic participation and we could really use some Asian participation.  We actually have those in spurts from year to year, but we always strive to do more in those areas."

"I would also like to see our attendance double in the crowd participation in the next few years," says Davis.  "We always try to get entertainment, booths, and participants that we know everybody will like, especially family-oriented activities.  Blending everything together is what helps us grow even further."

"It just all works together."

SLIDE SHOW OF THE 2014 UMOJA FESTIVAL, HELD AUGUST 8-9, 2014 IN JOHNSON CITY, TN -- IF THE SLIDE SHOW DOESN'T START AUTOMATICALLY, CLICK ON THE ALBUM NAME BELOW

2014 Umoja Festival Booths and Activities - Video Maker