Cambridge gets its Groove on August 16, 17

CAMBRIDGE - The Groove City Culture Fest helps celebrate summer’s end on Friday, August 16 and Saturday, August 17.

Now in its sixth year, the Groove City fest has become an annual event held the third weekend in August.

As it has each year, the Fest will feature a myriad of vendors, food, culture and live music.

Steadily having grown into one of the city’s largest family-friendly free festivals, it also revels in being diverse and inclusive.

According to Veronica Taylor, Executive Director of the Groove City Black Heritage & Culture Group, the event especially celebrates Pine Street’s heritage hailing from its heyday as a prime stop on the Chitlin’ circuit, when famed African American performers played to segregated venues during the Jim Crow era, from the early 1900s to the 1960s.

The Meet & Greet event will feature Washington, D.C. female Go-Go band Be’La Dona. Tickets are available via the GCCF website at: https://www.groovecityheritageculturegrp.org/general-5, or by calling 443-225-0819.

Throughout Saturday, August 17 on the 600 – 700 blocks of Pine Street, two stages will feature free live performances by Mike Hines & The Look, The Eastern Shore Experience, Elpea, Gospel Group The Commission and additional local talent.

Sixty vendors will serve up an array of local ethnic foods, African-inspired goods and fashion, health and wellness education, visual and spoken word art, and a Kidzone for youngsters.

Saturday’s highlight will take place at 5 p.m. when a banner honoring Joe Perry, owner of Gentleman Joe’s, will be installed at the corner of Dunns Ct. and Pine Streets.

Just four years following the 1967 fires which decimated the community’s once vibrant Pine Street corridor, Perry and his mother, Mrs. Olivia Cornish purchased the land. Undaunted, they proceeded to build, and on April 15, 1979, the doors to Gentleman Joe’s opened, once again offering the area a venue featuring fine dining and performers.

In addition to fine tuning the Culture Fest, Taylor and the Groove City organization have been especially busy throughout the summer offering affordable, accessible enrichment programs for children, including I.K.E. (Inspire, Knowledge, & Power) and Arts in the Community.

I.K.E was initially offered last summer, aimed at providing purposeful experience and activities for middle school youngsters, with field trips offering exposure to unique career possibilities in classic car restoration and engineering at local businesses and UMES’s Tech Dept to learn about robots.

This year, I.K.E widened its scope to respond to requests from those with elementary-aged children wanting to participate.

Activities include simple S.T.E.A.M. (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) projects to foster creative thinking and problem-solving, including bridges constructed from scratch using simple popsicle sticks. In another case, youngsters were also prompted with the dilemma of being lost at sea and tasked to build a raft to get to safety.

Thanks to a partnership with the Dorchester Skipjack Committee, older participants were able to sail on the Skipjack Nathan earlier this summer.

Merging creative flair and practical purpose, over the past few weeks all ages have been engaged in learning to write cursive.

“One day, they’ll need to be able to sign their names to contracts and other documents,” Taylor said. “Many in upper grades literally don’t know how to do it.”

The program concludes with a special Thursday field trip to Washington, D.C. to visit the Air & Space Museum and the Martin Luther King Monument, Taylor said.

Arts in the Community takes place Wednesdays at 5:30 p.m. at Bethel AME Church, 623 Pine Street, and following a brief break will resume in the Fall.

The program, led by featured instructors, artist/painter Tierra Brickous and singer/songwriter Ty Bolden, is designed to provide a safe space for youth, teens, and families to freely express themselves through art, explore hidden talents, and challenge themselves, according to the group’s website.

For more information visit https://www.groovecityheritageculturegrp.org/.