Grand River Black Music Festival and Conference
Kitchener Public Library
Innovation Synopsis
The Grand River Black Music Festival and Conference (GRBMF) is a multi-day event celebrating Black music and artistry.
The Festival and Conference are hosted by and at Kitchener Public Library's Central location (KPL) in partnership with local Black leadership and Wilfrid Laurier University. The event features concerts, workshops, and discussions with a focus on youth development.
This project was piloted in 2022 as the “Mel Brown Music Festival and Symposium”.
Challenge/Opportunity
The Grand River Black Music Festival is a response to systemic issues of under-representation of Black artists, musicians, creatives, and professionals in Kitchener, Ontario. It is an intentional celebration of Black excellence in the arts, with three goals:
1. to feature Black artists in live performance in prominent professional venues.
2. to engage Black youth in creative music-making in Black culture traditions.
3. to examine, identify and address anti-Black and systemic racism found in traditional schools of music, industry, higher learning institutions and organizations.
Key Elements of Innovation
KPL is GRBMF's administrative and NFP partner:
- Wrote grants, handled logistics and business services, consulted on artist curation
- Successfully secured multi-year funding
- Established a steering committee with reps from Laurier University and local Black leaders in arts, education and community building sectors
KPL is GRBMF’s venue partner:
-Coordinated and hosted workshops and concerts
-Established KPL’s Reading Lounge as premiere music venue
- Hosted Hip Hop Workshops for Black youth in KPL’s professional recording studios
- Showcased Black youth during the conference in KPL’s soft-seat theatre (capacity: 200 ppl) and on the main stage in the Reading Lounge (capacity: 400 ppl), alongside established performers and speakers
- KPL hosted four distinct concert events in our theatre and Reading Lounge, and in partnership with a co-located church. Each concert exclusively featured Black artists and Black-led groups
- Contracted with Black-owned businesses for hospitality services
Achieved Outcomes
-1,200+ free tickets claimed resulting in multiple sold-out events
-GRBMF costs covered by grants and sponsorship
-At capacity “Hip Hop Workshops for Black Youth” series
-Platformed 13 distinct musical acts representing more than 50 emerging and award-winning performers and musicians
-Received significant community support from local leaders, funders, and politicians from all levels of federal, provincial, regional and municipal governments
Participant feedback:
“The [GRBMF] at KPL was the first time I had ever seen Black people invited to make noise in a library. It shattered the notion I had lived with since childhood that the library was not a space where I could be my whole, authentic self... Up until then I had been extremely weary of Canadian public libraries for performative action and policing Black voices and movement. The [GRBMF] put allyship and community development into action.”
![](https://www.urbanlibraries.org/cpresources/transforms/10401?x=w5SVHRQji 200w, https://www.urbanlibraries.org/assets/_fitMedium/GRBMF-at-KPL-Reading-Lounge-main-stage-performance.jpg 340w)
![](https://www.urbanlibraries.org/cpresources/transforms/10403?x=w5SVHRQji 200w, https://www.urbanlibraries.org/assets/_fitMedium/GRBMF-at-KPL-Hip-Hop-Workhops-for-Black-Youth-showcase.jpg 340w)
![](https://www.urbanlibraries.org/cpresources/transforms/10405?x=w5SVHRQji 200w, https://www.urbanlibraries.org/assets/_fitMedium/GRBMF-at-KPL-Emerging-Artist-Showcase-sidestage.jpg 453w)