Springfield festival to celebrate Black-owned businesses

A festival celebrating Black-owned businesses, culture and community will be held for the second time next month.

The second annual Soko Place Festival will be held from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 9, at the Covenant United Methodist Church, 529 W. Johnny Lytle Ave.

This event aims to establish an outdoor marketplace uplifting cooperative economics, strengthen the Springfield and Clark County region through arts and culture, and bring residents together to celebrate and patronize local and regional Black businesses.

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Soko means “market” in Swahili. Soko Place is a cultural education and awareness tool developed to establish and maintain a local Black business economy, and its core focus is to create opportunities for residents and entrepreneurs to start and grow businesses, according to festival organizers.

The festival will include vendors, live music, speakers, local artists, Children’s Village and food. The featured musical artist is Tam Tam Magic from Cleveland, and the featured empowerment speaker is Amaha Sellassie from Dayton.

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Admission to the festival is free. The event is hosted by Covenant Community Development Corporation and Covenant United Methodist Church.

For more information, visit sokoplacefestival.org or contact Grace Brown at info@sokoplacefestival.org.

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