Chance The Rapper and Vic Mensa have announced that they will be putting together a festival. The Black Star Line Festival will take place in Africa. Activist Marcus Garvey inspired Chance The Rapper and Vic Mensa.
The Black Star Line Festival Announcement
WhatsTheWord reports that Chance The Rapper and Vic Mensa took eight high school graduates from Chicago to Accra, Ghana. Each student will soon be a college freshman. Taking students from Chicago to Ghana is important for both rappers. Vic Mensa says that the trip has been a year in the making.
โOur dream is to build bridges that cross the ocean of divide created by the Transatlantic slave tradeโ -Vic Mensa (Instagram)
Chance and Vic made a big announcement during the trip. Outside the doors of Free The Youth, the Chicago natives grab a microphone and start talking to a crowd. The rappers tell everyone that they will host The Black Star Line Festival in Ghana. The crowd goes crazy once they hear the news.
โTo the Black people around the world, we need connectionsโ- Chance The Rapper
The Marcus Garvey Inspiration
Marcus Garvey was born in 1887 on the island of Jamaica. Garvey grew up to be an activist who gained a huge following and is still inspiring people today. Eventually, he created the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA).
In 1919, Marcus created the shipping company Black Star Line under UNIA. Sources from History.com state that the goal was to establish a nation on the continent of Africa for enslaved people or descendants of those who were enslaved.
A Continued Movement
Chance The Rapper and Vic Mensa want to continue what Marcus Garvey started. The artist is inspired to connect Black people all over the world to Africa. The Festival is one way to bring people back to Africa.
โWhen we came here and touched down and felt the love that we received and the fans that we got to connect with, the understanding for the need for the connection became apparent to us. We need a music festival bringing major artists to Ghanaโ โ Chance The Rapper
The Black Star Line Festival will be held January 6 at the Black Star Square in Accra, Ghana.
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Xavier “Writer X” Griffin | Facebook @WriterX93 |Twitter @WRITER_X_713| Instagram xaviegriffin81
