Crowds flock to Vernon Park for People’s Poetry and Jazz Festival [gallery]

Supreme Dow, executive director of Vernon Park’s Black Writers Museum, billed the People’s Poetry and Jazz Festival as a Saturday event which “promises to be uplifting, yet relaxing for the whole family.”

That positive vibe filled the central Germantown park at a time when community groups map a positive future for the space.

At the event itself, renowned Germantown poet Sonia Sanchez awarded poet, professor and civil-rights activist Askia Toure with the “Living Legend of Poetry” award.

Live jazz was scheduled to be provided by the Oliver Lake Organ Quartet and the Dahi Divine Quartet.

The Universal African Dance and Drum Ensemble and the Tye’ Himba Drum Ensemble featuring Muhammad Silla from Guinea, Africa added “some positive rhythms that will move the soul,” said Dow.