Chicago’s South Side rejoiced yet again at the 5th annual Englewood Music Festival, which took place at Kennedy-King College’s baseball field on Sept. 13. The free event is a treat for the community, featuring art and performances that showcased the vibrant and resilient neighborhood that is Englewood.
Additionally, where else can you see Grammy Award-winning Gospel sensation Le’Andria Johnson and Louisiana rapper Boosie Badazz hit the same stage on the same night?
“We want [to have a diverse lineup] from the baby to the baby boomer,” Ald. Stephanie Coleman (16th Ward) told The TRiiBE. “If anything, we’re celebrating Englewood, but we’re celebrating Chicago. This is a win. This is no crime. This is family. This is a reunion.”
This year’s festival added an even larger kids zone from last year. There were free children’s books giveaway by South Side nonprofit Brown Books and Paint Brushes, face painting, a juice box sip-and-paint, a soft foam play area, the Wiggles and Wonder mobile bubble bus promoting a clay therapy area and more.
Some of the new public art offerings included the Floating Museum’s monument sculpture, a photo exhibit by social justice artist and Englewood native Tonika Lewis Johnson, and a new abstract floral sculpture by Englewood Arts Collective (EAC)’s co-founder and director Janell Nelson.
These new attractions were all a part of the festival’s family-friendly Arts Village, put together by the EAC.
“I think this event is a beautiful representation of what happens when bureaucratic entities trust and respect artists,” Nelson told The TRiiBE. “Joy is my artistic practice, and I think that there’s different ways to hold space for liberation and curating joy is vital to sustaining us.”
EAC had its own stage this year, which highlighted local talent. The “Home is Where The Art Lives” stage, curated by musician Sam Thousand and his arts organization Chibrations, featured Club Crib and Soul Tribe as a house band, which grooved in between performers.
“It was just all made with love, and I could not be prouder,” Nelson said. “The 16th Ward has been a valuable partner with us by giving us this footprint and allowing us to hold space without many barriers.”
The stage also featured performances from the Red Clay Dance Company, the South Shore Drill Team, DJ John West, poet Leslé Honoré who read an excerpt from her new book My Brown Boy, and more.
Nelson said the event should be celebrated as a glorious representation of everything that makes Chicago special, and specifically the South Side.
“This is a safe event. So whatever you might hear about what needs to happen in Chicago, what needs to be deployed to Chicago, events like this, counter that,” she said.
Around 4 p.m., the main stage kicked off, hosted by comedians Joy Gamby and Jeremiah “FRAYWAY” Frazier.
When Gospel sensation Le’Andria Johnson hit the stage, the praises went up. She came down to ground level with the audience while singing hits like 2017’s “Better Days” and 2019’s “Deliver Me;” the latter is a song by Donald Lawrence and The Tri-City Singers, of which Johnson is the featured lead singer. The crowd was elated. Her performance set the mood for a great lineup of performers, which seems to get better as the festival grows every year.
After her set, Judge Greg Mathis took to the stage. He had a message of unity and advocated for the release of political prisoner Larry Hoover, the co-founder of the Black Gangster Disciple Nation.
“I’m here first of all to support Stephanie Coleman, alderwomen of the 16th Ward, because she’s doing the type of job that we all appreciate, strengthening our community,” Mathis told The TRiiBE.
Mathis believes that Hoover, who has been imprisoned for over 50 years, has the ability to make a difference within the lives of the youth in Chicago if he’s allowed to return home.
“We have examples of those who can come out of their incarceration and make a difference,” he said. He mentioned Detroit’s Black Mafia Family (BMF) brothers Demetrius Edward “Big Meech” and Terry Lee “Southwest Tee” Flenory as examples of influential street figures who can return home from a bid and make a positive impact in the community.
“We hope that we can get Larry Hoover home because we know that he has a positive program of development for Black youth,” Mathis said.
Mathis then introduced Hoover’s son, Larry Hoover, Jr., a soft spoken man who also shared a few words about his father with the crowd . The TRiiBE briefly spoke to Hoover when he exited the stage.
“It was just an opportunity to try to rally the people behind our push for trying to bring my father home so he can be back and be a part of the community, give back to the community, if he’s allowed to, and just get a chance, a second chance, a chance for redemption,” Hoover told The TRiiBE.
For Hoover, the Englewood Music Festival is more than just a concert, but a showcase of what Chicago and the South Side is all about.
“We need to show that we’re not animals, that we have community, that we have love,” he said. “It’s good to see that we can have a good time without violence, because they make it like anytime we come outside in Chicago, somebody has to die.”
After Hoover left the stage, it seemed like the festival flipped a switch and turned all the way up. Let’s just say the gospel hour was over and most of the children and elders were now gone.
1990s R&B group Next had all of us singing along to their hits “Wifey,” “Too Close,” and “Butta Luv.”
Chicago artists were also well represented on the main stage with performances from Chicago comedian and rapper Korporate, and an R&B singalong set by DJ Sean Mac and Joe Global; both brought comedic flair as they played songs the crowd loved, like Usher’s “Superstar” and “Right and a Wrong Way” by Keith Sweat.
Other local talent would get their chance to shine, like rising rap star Glizzy Glow, a proud Englewood native who hit the stage with energy as she performed her hit single “Cutwater.”
Michael Epps, who plays Jake on the Showtime original TV series “The Chi,” also gave us a few bars under the stage name Mikee.
Another performer, although not native to Chicago but helped set the mood for the rest of the evening, was ex NFL player-turned-singer Nathan Palmer, who goes by “NaPalm.”
“It’s an honor to be here at Englewood fest,” he told The TRiiBE. “Anytime you get to perform in Chicago, and the people rock with you and sing your music with you, it’s always a good time.”
Headlining this year’s festival was Louisiana native and rap legend Boosie Badazz. Known for his raw story telling and street anthems, Boosie’s honesty and grit in his music has resonated with the hoods of America for over two decades now.
He lit the stage up with his presence, and his chains, as he performed songs like, “Mind of a Maniac,” “Wipe Me Down,” and “Set It Off.” He wore a white throwback Michael Jordan Bull’s jersey.
Playing a major role in this festival is Ald. Stephanie Coleman (16th Ward), who founded the festival in 2021 with hopes to bring music and positive community energy to her ward. The TRiiBE spoke to Coleman about the city’s resilience in the face of being the political target of President Donald Trump. She said Chicago won’t waiver.
“The world could be on fire. It could be burning down, but it’s something about when Black people come together and love on each other, it doesn’t matter what’s happening around us, but when we truly love on each other and we care for each other, this is what investment looks like,” she said. “This is what community looks like. This is what stabilization looks like. This is what revitalization will look like, because we will help secure our historically Black community irregardless of what’s going on around us.”
