The Hill District Arts Festival is back for its fifth year on the 1800 block of Centre Avenue, and hundreds of people are expected to attend.
The event, hosted by Pittsburgh-based nonprofit ACH Clear Pathways, takes place Saturday and Sunday. Its goal? To bring the community together, according to program director Lauryn Henson.
“The Hill District is known for some of the arts that it used to have,” Henson said. “We’re not often together in the community … so this is just a nice weekend to reconnect and get our information out there.”
Marimba Milliones, president and CEO of the Hill Community Development Corp., said Black art gallery Nafasi on Centre, The New Granada project, the University of Pittsburgh’s Community Engagement Center and the August Wilson Center are just a few examples of the Hill District’s roots in Black artistry.
”The Hill District Arts Festival is another great event to highlight our community’s progress and the opportunities that still await,” Milliones said.
ACH Clear Pathways, founded by Tyian Battle in 2009, aims to “nurture creativity through the visual and performing arts by providing opportunities to youth and families within the arts,” Henson said.
The organization was created after the death of Battle’s son, Amon Harris, who died at age 7 due to a heart defect.
“He loved the arts,” said Danai Battle, chief operating director at ACH Clear Pathways and Tyian Battle’s sister. “She was not able to afford the arts when he was alive, so when he passed away, she said ‘How do I give back to my community? How do I honor my son at the same time?’ ”
The festival, according to Henson, reflects their mission to enrich the community through art and provides a safe, enjoyable way to bring the community together.
Henson said ACH Clear Pathways looks to spotlight local artists as well as bring in nationally known performers.
The search for artists at the Hill District Arts Festival is largely based on community response, Battle said.
“These artists have timeless music that is just hit after hit, time after time,” Battle said.
Performers this year include Rose Royce on Saturday, Scarface and several DJ sets on Sunday.
There will also be more than 30 vendors on Centre Avenue, including food trucks and local artisans.
The four out of nine ACH Clear Pathways’ team members start planning in October, and Henson admits it’s difficult to set up given the size of their organization.
Fundraising for the event takes place throughout the year, as Tyian Battle works to enlist sponsors.
Battle and Henson said the effort is largely collaborative, but the team works together all year to organize vendor contracts, find artists, create activities for kids and organize volunteers.
“It gets overwhelming, just because it’s becoming a larger and larger event,” Henson said. “But what helps most is just being able to talk it out with the rest of the team, as well as remembering what we are doing this for.”
ACH Clear Pathways has enlisted the help of 10 volunteers from the Hill District community and partnered with Hollywood Productions Inc., a set production company based in Gaffney, South Carolina.
Saturday and Sunday are free to attend.
All proceeds from the festival go to supporting ACH’s programming.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source triblive.com ’
