Halifax to host first music festival with all-Black lineup in August

A new music festival featuring an all-Black lineup of performers is coming to Halifax this summer.

Crescendo Fest will span two days, with a conference set for Aug. 4 at the Light House Arts Centre and the concert scheduled for Aug. 5 in Parade Square. Both events will be free to attend.

The festival was put together to "turn up the volume on Black music artists," according to the event's website.

Organizer Micah Smith, who is also a member of the Atlantic chapter of Women in Music Canada and sits on the board of the North Preston's Future organization, spoke with Jeff Douglas on Mainstreet Nova Scotia about how the event came to be.

Their conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity and length. 

Can we talk about the inspiration for Crescendo, why you felt this is something that really had to happen?

Being involved with music most of my life, I've had the awesome opportunity to be on several stages with my cousin Reeny Smith and her sister, Haliey. We get to work with Matt Anderson and Joel Plaskett and so many other amazing artists.

The thing I noticed is where are the other Black artists? I know there are plenty of Black artists who are amazing in this city, within Nova Scotia and across Atlantic Canada. Why aren't they getting these opportunities? Why is nobody coming in and doing artist development with us?

Artist development is very important to get to these big stages. When I see a problem, I like to come with a solution. If nobody else is going to do it, I have to do it.

What's crazy to me is that it hasn't happened before. Did anyone yell at you, "No, no Micah, you are crazy to take this on?"

I've had one negative response. The response was, "Isn't that the responsibility of ANSMA, the African Nova Scotian Music Association?" And I'm like, why is it the responsibility of the one organization that we have to look after a whole province full of Black people who are underfunded and understaffed? How can we just put that on them on top of everything else they have to do? Why are we confined to one box? Let's expand the box. Let's have multiple boxes rolling, so we have all of these opportunities for this group of people.

Let's talk about the program, some of the folks that we're going to see perform at Crescendo this year. Who can we look forward to?

Reeny Smith always puts on an amazing show and sometimes I'm blown away on stage. She went from singer to songwriter to producer now and she's really made a name for herself, and I just want the whole world to know this name: Reeny Smith.

We also have a newer artist. She's been doing songwriting for many years: Maggie Andrew.

We love Maggie here.

Maggie is a ball of fire. I met Maggie a few years ago and when I found out she was doing the Black Vibe Showcase, she was like, "This is going to be my first showcase. I'm super nervous." And me being the person that I am, I'm like, "One step at a time, make sure you have rehearsals, make sure you really feel confident when you get on that stage." Seeing her progress and be so confident now, I'm excited to have her on this stage and give her this opportunity.

I also know you're bringing Michie Mee for an interview opportunity. Talk about that, and why that was important to include in this inaugural Crescendo.

I'm a strong believer that in order to know where I'm going, I need to know where I've come from. This year is the 50th anniversary of hip-hop and I'm like, "How do we highlight that in our Crescendo Fest?" You have multiple artist suggestions with Maestro Fresh Wes and there's Kardinal Offishall, so many other males who have dominated hip hop in Canada. I'm like, "Let's do something different. How about a female, the queen of Canadian hip hop?"

So we reached out to her and she's just so excited to come. I'm excited for, the hip-hop artists, especially to hear her perspective, her journey from being born in Jamaica but raised in Canada and just making a huge name for herself.

Here in Nova Scotia, the Black community is the oldest, I think. So it's kind of the place to do it.

Yes, I come from the community of North Preston and we've been here well over 300 years. There were a few different migrations and the music was one thing that was definitely passed down through those generations and it's about time we celebrated.

There's a few workshops. Can you tell us a bit about those?

So we're going to have a creative collaboration panel and that'll talk about how collaborating can be so huge for your career. Sometimes we like to stay to ourselves and work, but you never know what could happen if you go and you collaborate with a Zamani or any of these artists.

Then, we have an export panel. Everybody wants to get outside of Nova Scotia, but how do I do that? So we're excited to have a programmer coming in from the United States from the International Festival of Arts and Ideas in New Haven, Conn. His name is Malakhi Eason. 

We have Katrina Lopes, who's from Nova Scotia. She's just doing amazing things with KL Management for our artists. Before Music Week and ECMA, she'll come in and do a mentorship program, so it's really great to have her here.

For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians — from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community — check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.