Roots Cultural Festival Getting a new Lease on Life

By Keisha Harrington

The Roots Cultural Festival, Inc., one of Delray Beach’s longest running festivals, is showing signs of a rebirth. Organizers have infused new blood in the leadership ranks and have put together a schedule of events for next year.

“We want the community to know that we are back and that we need the community to be more involved,” President Rhonda Turner Williams said. “This is something that has been missing for years. And the city is working with us to bring [the Roots Cultural Festival] back.” The tentative yearlong calendar kicks off with an event on Jan. 16 at Pompey Park. Other events over the first seven months include a fashion show, a breakfast, a basketball tournament, a health and fitness event and an academic Olympic.

The nonprofit organization held a car wash in the McDonald’s parking lot, 14529 S. Military Trail, on Saturday, Dec. 6. It will also hold a fundraising breakfast at Applebee’s, 1720 S. Federal Hwy., on Saturday, Dec. 13. Proceeds from the events will support the Libby Wesley Weekend Celebration, scheduled from Feb. 27 through Mar. 1, 2015. Ida Elizabeth “Libby” Wesley, a retired educator, cofounded the organization with a group of

African American homeowners in her Jefferson Manor neighborhood in 1978. The festival began as a one-day event and at one time grew to a year-round celebration. The founders are in their late 70s or 80s and the new leaders are in their late 30s and 40s. On Saturday, organizers and students, who earned community service hours, spent much of the morning washing cars.

Kristie Owens was among those who supported the event. “She paved the way for many people by helping us celebrating our heritage,” Owens, 44, who lives in Boynton Beach, said of Wesley.

Owens, a Delray Beach native, recalls the 24 years when Roots held a summer-long series of workshops, concerts and public events celebrating African and Caribbean cultures. The festival then culminated in August at Pompey Park.

In December 2000, the organization began holding the first of a five-part classical series in the Crest Theater at Old School Square Cultural Arts Center. The series featured instructions for area children in vocal performance, piano, drama, string instruments and classes in classical dance.

The program involved teaching minority children to read and perform classical music and art in 10-hour workshops. Following each workshop, the youth displayed their talents in a performance.

The Festival also had a special addition to its 2000 kick off bash when the School District of Palm Beach County unveiled a new curriculum program focusing on teaching students African American culture and history.

The program, the first of its kind in Florida, was in response to a state legislative mandate passed in 1994 requiring students from grades kindergarten through 12 to receive instructions in the history and contributions of African and African-Americans in all subject areas. Organizers in 2001 changed the Roots Cultural Festival to a yearlong celebration with events sporadic throughout the year.

The following year, organizers moved the event to Old School Square, a move which received objections from some. Attendance waned and the group accumulated $50,000 in debt. The festival eventually asked the city for about $10,000 to satisfy its debts.

Organizers then scaled back the festival, focusing on basketball tournaments, the classical concert and the festival, which they returned in 2012 to the Community Redevelopment Agency’s vacant property in the 900 block of West Atlantic Avenue.

The free event attracted several hundred attendees who braved inclement weather. Plans are to hold next year’s festival at Pompey Park and in 2016 move it back along West Atlantic Avenue from the amphitheater, named in honor of Wesley at NW 5th Delray Beach Tennis Center.

“Our goal is to hold it at Pompey Park the first year then have it on Atlantic Avenue from Checkers to the Tennis Center,” Williams said. “We can have the booths on the Avenue and bring the big artists to the Tennis Center.”