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.

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

-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.”