Aurora – Day Acoli believes students’ test scores improve dramatically when they express themselves through poetry, art and music.
But when funding for her after- school arts program, Destination: Artistic Activism, dwindled last year because of budget cuts by the Aurora school district, the 21-year-old poet and author decided to take art to the streets.
On Saturday, Acoli held the first Aurora Black Arts Festival at Fletcher Plaza, 9900 E. Colfax Ave.
“There was no venue (in Aurora) for our work or place for us to perform or showcase our contributions,” Acoli said.
Denver has had a black arts festival for 19 years.
Acoli said proceeds from the Aurora event will help support her arts program, which targets high school and middle school students by teaching and encouraging them to express themselves through different art media.
On Saturday, artists and hip- hop performers gathered to showcase their paintings and perform on a stage set up in front of the Martin Luther King Jr. Library. Theater actors performed in plays at the Aurora Fox Arts Center that cost $10 a ticket.
“To be able to control your universe and cultural identity with your words is a very powerful thing,” said Oracle Speaks, one of the event organizers and a professional spoken-word artist.
On Saturday, Shana and Warren Stokes took turns performing rhythm and blues soul and hip-hop spoken word while their sons, Warren Jr., 4, and Markus, 2, played nearby.
“I love expressing black issues and uplifting women,” Shana Stokes said.
Although a cool day kept festival attendance down, a variety of food and product vendors were busy offering Ethiopian sanbusa, a meat or lentil turnover, as well as barbecue rib sandwiches, gumbo, turkey legs and fried catfish.
The North Aurora Business Association sponsored the African Farmer’s Market that sold fruit and vegetables, while other vendors sold books, T-shirts, jewelry and gifts from Morocco.
Denver artist Robert E. Evans set up easels with portraits drawn of Malcolm X, President Kennedy and jazz artist Charlie Parker, among others.
“This event is so inspiring. We need to create venues for ourselves,” Evans said.
The Aurora Black Arts Festival continues today from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. For information, call 757-753-7441.
Staff writer Annette Espinoza can be reached at 303-820-1655 or aespinoza@denverpost.com.
