There haven’t been a lot of bright spots in our coronavirus summer — so it’s an especially good thing for the city that the NAACP’s Boston Freedom Weekend 2020 starts Friday with a free Drive-In Soul Music Concert.
Tanisha M. Sullivan, president of the NAACP Boston Branch, said, “We wanted to kick off this convention cycle with Freedom Weekend uplifting the arts and our creativity as an act of resistance and protest. From cotton fields to street marches, the arts have always played a pivotal role in the racial justice movement. In fact, for generations Black creatives have stood on the front lines of protest to bring about change. We embrace that legacy as we usher in the National NAACP Arts & Culture festival component of the convention.”
Front and center in Friday’s musical celebration hosted by Courtney Boston and DJ Jeff 2Timez are local singers and bands, including:
Athene Wilson: R&B vocalist and three-time winner at the Boston Urban Music Awards.
The Creatives: Talented duo and recent performers at BostonMusicWars, where the singers went up against Odaine.
Danny Rivera: Rising singer/songwriter perhaps best known for his powerful performance in which he turned Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley’s first House speech into a song.
The Roots Alley Collective: A multitalented gathering of Berklee and Boston musicians, the group unites in a fusion of reggae, R&B and hip-hop.
The Woo Factor: Jazz, funk and soul inform the basis of this Boston-based band’s sound that keep them busy on local stages.
The drive-in concert runs from 6 to 9 p.m. Friday (which is only supposed to hit the 80s, temp-wise) at the Bayside Expo Lot, 200 Mt. Vernon St., Dorchester.
This being the summer of COVID, there are safety and social distancing measures:
- Advance registration is required: eventbrite.com/e/naacp-boston-drive-in-soul-music-concert-tickets-114374745944
- Register early and arrive early. Once vehicle capacity is reached, they will not be able to admit more vehicles.
- Masks and social distancing strictly enforced.
And for those who can’t make it — the concert will livestream on YouTube.