Goombay! ‘In the beginning…’
From Staff Reports
It’s been 24 years since the first Goombay festival was held in Asheville. That August of 1982, no one imagined that a one-time fundraising event for the YMI Cultural Center would turn into Asheville’s second largest street festival.
It started when a number of women got together as the Friends of the YMI Cultural Center. After an illustrious 75-year history, the YMI had fallen into disrepair and closed in the late 1970s. A group of community leaders was determined to restore and reopen the building as a non-profit community center, and renovation of the newly incorporated YMICC was underway by 1981. But money was tight. “[The Friends] started meeting to raise funds for programs,” says Willie Vincent, the original secretary of the group.
It’s been 24 years since the first Goombay festival was held in Asheville. That August of 1982, no one imagined that a one-time fundraising event for the YMI Cultural Center would turn into Asheville’s second largest street festival.
It started when a number of women got together as the Friends of the YMI Cultural Center. After an illustrious 75-year history, the YMI had fallen into disrepair and closed in the late 1970s. A group of community leaders was determined to restore and reopen the building as a non-profit community center, and renovation of the newly incorporated YMICC was underway by 1981. But money was tight. “[The Friends] started meeting to raise funds for programs,” says Willie Vincent, the original secretary of the group.
Jacqueline
King was president, and the other members were Georgia Allen, Jeanne
& Nathaniel Bowman, Mary Gist Childs, Wanda Coleman, Sophie Dixon,
Helen Eddington, Gloria Howard Free, Florence Green, Barbara Hunter,
Barbara & David Jones, James King, Portia Leverette, Madge Murray,
Julia Ray, Jacqueline Scott, and Inez & Daniel Whiteside.
A few years
before, Mrs. Free had experienced a Goombay festival in Florida.
“Jackie King and Florence Green and I had gone to Miami in 1974 for an
Alpha Kappa Alpha boulé [a national gathering of the sorority]. My
daughter was with me, too, and we signed up for ‘Goombay Night.’ It
captured my imagination. I was determined to bring it to my home town.”
At the opportune
moment seven years later, she suggested that the Friends celebrate
Goombay for the YMI. With its roots in Afro-Caribbean cultural history,
the festival celebrates island music, dance, culture, and food. The
group liked the idea, though doing it from scratch would present
challenges. Willie Vincent remembers, “We didn’t have the large number
of volunteers you see now. We cooked, we served, we cleaned up, we did
everything. There were no vendors; it was just us.”
The Block was a
different place then, too. Long a thriving business district and the
heart of Asheville’s African American community, it had also suffered
decline. The businesses in the YMI building had moved or closed, and
others on The Block would soon follow. Dr. Vincent’s medical office was
on Market Street where the Pack Place parking deck now stands. Within a
few years, he had moved to the Doctor’s Building. His neighbors
included three barber shops, a drug store, and a jewelers; all were
gone by the first Goombay.
“The Block was
dead,” recalls Mrs. Vincent. “There were people hanging out, drinking
wine, doing drugs. We knew we had to clean up The Block before we could
have a festival there.”
It was Julia Ray
who came up with a solution to that problem. She and her husband were
well known and respected in the community, and she knew some of the men
hanging out on the street. She suggested to the others on the committee
that they “use the guys” on The Block to clean up the mess they’d made.
The other women were hesitant. “But she knew them, and she went out and
got them to do it,” says Mrs. Vincent. “She got those guys, instead of
doing nothing, to clean it up.”
There’s a note
of pride in her voice as she describes what happened. The men on The
Block were recruited not only to clean up before the festival, but to
“police” it as well.
“We told them
they had to stay sober, and they did,” she continues. “They took pride
in it. There was such a spirit of cooperation between the Friends of
the YMI Cultural Center and the men on the street. We all came together
for The Block and made them do something positive.”
Over the years
Goombay has grown much larger, attracting tens of thousands of visitors
between Friday afternoon and Sunday evening. Dozens of vendors sell
African art, native crafts, clothing, and African American and
Caribbean food. The festival’s economic aspect is tangible among the
businesses on The Block, among the vendors, and at the YMI itself.
Today the YMI
Cultural Center is fully restored and thriving, both as the premiere
center of Western North Carolina’s African American cultural history
and as a partner organization of Pack Place Center for the Arts (see
interview with YMICC Executive Director Harry Harrison, p. 3). Dozens
of new businesses line Eagle and Market Streets, including, once again,
three hair care shops, a newsstand, other retailers, and popular
restaurants. A renovated office building houses half a dozen new media
companies (and the offices of The Urban News & Observer). One sees
a constant and changing mix of colors and races, not just during
Goombay but every day.
“It’s wonderful
how it reaches across the color lines,” says Mrs. Vincent. “You see
people enjoying Goombay, walking around The Block, volunteering,
without respect of color. People working together like that benefits
The Block and the community at large.”
Mrs. Free agrees
that the spirit of Goombay has a special magnetism. “It draws people
from the pockets where we’ve lived – our community groups, sororities,
clubs, churches – it attracts people from all socio-economic groups,
all segments of society, all types. It has a universal appeal.”
The festival’s
reach has grown as well. On a trip to Eastern North Carolina, Mrs.
Vincent met a couple who had read about Goombay in their local
newspaper and made the trip to Asheville just for the festival last
year. “Goombay has brought about a sense of pride in The Block, and in
the black community, and all of Asheville,” she says. “And you can see
the great changes on The Block.”
“I see this as
our festival,” says Mrs. Free, “something in which we have ownership,
that gives a sense of place. Goombay creates a diverse gathering,
people coming to experience who we are, what we are, and becoming a
part of that. It’s creating a global village of sorts, right here in
downtown Asheville.”
The YMI building
has anchored The Block for more than a century, and the first Goombay
helped re-anchor the YMI when its restoration was just beginning. This
summer, the 24th Annual Goombay Festival will be a keystone of the
revitalization of The Block and Asheville’s pride in its historic
African American community – right in the heart of it.
Anyone who has
attended the festival would agree with Mrs. Free when she says, “I
found Goombay in Miami Beach, and Goombay found me.”
King was president, and the other members were Georgia Allen, Jeanne
& Nathaniel Bowman, Mary Gist Childs, Wanda Coleman, Sophie Dixon,
Helen Eddington, Gloria Howard Free, Florence Green, Barbara Hunter,
Barbara & David Jones, James King, Portia Leverette, Madge Murray,
Julia Ray, Jacqueline Scott, and Inez & Daniel Whiteside.
A few years
before, Mrs. Free had experienced a Goombay festival in Florida.
“Jackie King and Florence Green and I had gone to Miami in 1974 for an
Alpha Kappa Alpha boulé [a national gathering of the sorority]. My
daughter was with me, too, and we signed up for ‘Goombay Night.’ It
captured my imagination. I was determined to bring it to my home town.”
At the opportune
moment seven years later, she suggested that the Friends celebrate
Goombay for the YMI. With its roots in Afro-Caribbean cultural history,
the festival celebrates island music, dance, culture, and food. The
group liked the idea, though doing it from scratch would present
challenges. Willie Vincent remembers, “We didn’t have the large number
of volunteers you see now. We cooked, we served, we cleaned up, we did
everything. There were no vendors; it was just us.”
The Block was a
different place then, too. Long a thriving business district and the
heart of Asheville’s African American community, it had also suffered
decline. The businesses in the YMI building had moved or closed, and
others on The Block would soon follow. Dr. Vincent’s medical office was
on Market Street where the Pack Place parking deck now stands. Within a
few years, he had moved to the Doctor’s Building. His neighbors
included three barber shops, a drug store, and a jewelers; all were
gone by the first Goombay.
“The Block was
dead,” recalls Mrs. Vincent. “There were people hanging out, drinking
wine, doing drugs. We knew we had to clean up The Block before we could
have a festival there.”
It was Julia Ray
who came up with a solution to that problem. She and her husband were
well known and respected in the community, and she knew some of the men
hanging out on the street. She suggested to the others on the committee
that they “use the guys” on The Block to clean up the mess they’d made.
The other women were hesitant. “But she knew them, and she went out and
got them to do it,” says Mrs. Vincent. “She got those guys, instead of
doing nothing, to clean it up.”
There’s a note
of pride in her voice as she describes what happened. The men on The
Block were recruited not only to clean up before the festival, but to
“police” it as well.
“We told them
they had to stay sober, and they did,” she continues. “They took pride
in it. There was such a spirit of cooperation between the Friends of
the YMI Cultural Center and the men on the street. We all came together
for The Block and made them do something positive.”
Over the years
Goombay has grown much larger, attracting tens of thousands of visitors
between Friday afternoon and Sunday evening. Dozens of vendors sell
African art, native crafts, clothing, and African American and
Caribbean food. The festival’s economic aspect is tangible among the
businesses on The Block, among the vendors, and at the YMI itself.
Today the YMI
Cultural Center is fully restored and thriving, both as the premiere
center of Western North Carolina’s African American cultural history
and as a partner organization of Pack Place Center for the Arts (see
interview with YMICC Executive Director Harry Harrison, p. 3). Dozens
of new businesses line Eagle and Market Streets, including, once again,
three hair care shops, a newsstand, other retailers, and popular
restaurants. A renovated office building houses half a dozen new media
companies (and the offices of The Urban News & Observer). One sees
a constant and changing mix of colors and races, not just during
Goombay but every day.
“It’s wonderful
how it reaches across the color lines,” says Mrs. Vincent. “You see
people enjoying Goombay, walking around The Block, volunteering,
without respect of color. People working together like that benefits
The Block and the community at large.”
Mrs. Free agrees
that the spirit of Goombay has a special magnetism. “It draws people
from the pockets where we’ve lived – our community groups, sororities,
clubs, churches – it attracts people from all socio-economic groups,
all segments of society, all types. It has a universal appeal.”
The festival’s
reach has grown as well. On a trip to Eastern North Carolina, Mrs.
Vincent met a couple who had read about Goombay in their local
newspaper and made the trip to Asheville just for the festival last
year. “Goombay has brought about a sense of pride in The Block, and in
the black community, and all of Asheville,” she says. “And you can see
the great changes on The Block.”
“I see this as
our festival,” says Mrs. Free, “something in which we have ownership,
that gives a sense of place. Goombay creates a diverse gathering,
people coming to experience who we are, what we are, and becoming a
part of that. It’s creating a global village of sorts, right here in
downtown Asheville.”
The YMI building
has anchored The Block for more than a century, and the first Goombay
helped re-anchor the YMI when its restoration was just beginning. This
summer, the 24th Annual Goombay Festival will be a keystone of the
revitalization of The Block and Asheville’s pride in its historic
African American community – right in the heart of it.
Anyone who has
attended the festival would agree with Mrs. Free when she says, “I
found Goombay in Miami Beach, and Goombay found me.”
