JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – June is Black Music Month, and a new concert series will bring live music to Lift Ev’ry Voice & Sing Park in Jacksonville’s historic LaVilla neighborhood.
RELATED | Honoring Black Music Excellence: Jacksonville artists recognized at Ritz Theatre by Onyx Magazine
Recommended Videos
The Pop-Out is a concert series that runs throughout the month of June, bringing local and regional Black musical acts to the River City.
The concert series is curated by Larry Love & Love Creates and presented by VyStar Credit Union, Placemaking Jax, Vibrant Places Collective, & Jax Parks.
“We’re focusing on the Lift Ev’ry Voice & Sing Park, which is a new park here in Jacksonville and also creating more spaces and stages for a lot of the artists here in the city. We feel like it’s a Jacksonville renaissance,” Love said.
The location is no coincidence. The park is named after the Black national anthem written by Jacksonville natives James Weldon Johnson and John Rosamond Johnson.
Bringing music here is intentional and personal for the artists involved, as rapper Kale James explained.
“So for me, I feel like I’m a part of history now and so it means so much to me,” James said.
For Love and others, it isn’t just a concert, it’s a step toward reclaiming the narrative about Jacksonville.
“There’s been a lot of rhetoric about what Jacksonville is,” Love said. “We’ve been talked about as a city for so long as Carla will tell you, as Kale will tell you, Jacksonville has such a rich history and we are a product of that history as well.”
Founded in 1979 by President Jimmy Carter, June is African American Music Appreciation Month. The month celebrates and honors the legacy of music made or inspired by African Americans.
The concert series takes place on June 1, June 8, and June 29 from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.
It’s free for the whole family to attend. In addition to live music, there will be food trucks and local vendors.
