Community
Print
New Yorkers, mark your calendars! On August 12, Black VegFest returns to Brooklyn, New York City, to host its Spread Love 2 vegan festival. The event is the non-profit organization’s sixth annual festival.
Black VegFest will be hosted at the Weeksville Heritage Center in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, featuring top plant-based eats from more than 75 chefs. The event celebrates the intersection of vegan living and the Black community, hosting panel discussions on Black food cooperatives and social justice.
“At Black VegFest, we are engaging with our people, bringing them in and sharing and learning with each other,” Francis Peña, an organizer with Black VegFest, told VegOut. “This is our power. And we want us, our people, to have that power and take it wherever it needs to go.”
What’s scheduled for this year’s Black VegFest?
Black VegFest’s Spread Love 2 festival opens at 12pm and runs until right before dusk at 7pm. During that time, the organization has scheduled plenty of performances from local artists and talks from community and plant-based leaders, including Dr. Milton Mills. Additionally, the festival will host food demos, educational panels, and fitness competitions for all ages.
The festival is still finalizing its lineup of presenters, asking community educators to apply to present on topics such as Black solidarity, health, animal welfare, and the climate crisis.
For families with kids, Black VegFest is hosting several activities specifically geared toward children. The festival will organize a “Kids Chef” competition, where kids can show off their plant-based cooking skills with their parents’ assistance.
General admission is free to the public, which includes access to street festival vendors, picnics on the lawn, and main stage performances and panels. Admission to the Weeksville Heritage Center will also be free, where organizers will host two workshops, and visitors will receive a free “swag bag” as well as tickets to a raffle entry.
The festival will also offer VIP Organizer Support tickets for $150. This includes a Black VegFest t-shirt, a swag bag, unlimited access to workshops, access to an open bar from 12pm to 3pm, and a visit to Liberation Farm this October. Find tickets for Black VegFest here.
Intersectionality in the vegan movement
Omowale Adewale, a long-time vegan and Black VegFest founder, noticed that most vegan festivals rarely represent the Black community. Often, plant-based festivals consist of primarily white vendors, so Adewale decided to create an event that highlighted Black vegan vendors, artists, educators, activists, and community leaders. The festival, scheduled for the second Saturday of August, pays homage to Black August, a month dedicated to honoring freedom fighters and the collective movement against Black oppression.
“Vegan intersectionality is a safe and effective way to design community protection, love, and justice for all,” Adewale told VegOut in an interview. “This country doesn’t know what this looks like because we [revolve around] white supremacy, patriarchy, and ableism.”
“Vegans practicing intersectionality support other oppressed sentient beings, not just animals and white people’s purposes. What if we recognized the overlapping of oppression and [fought] to end [all] injustice[s], instead of ignoring some? Folks have experienced this reality at Black VegFest, where we struggle to ensure that folks have a voice + [access to] delicious vegan food.”
Vegan events in NYC
Black VegFest is joined by other vegan events in New York City. Last month, the Vegan Night Market opened at Central Park’s Wollman Rink. Seventy 70 percent of vendors at the event are owned or founded by people of color, while 50 percent are women-led. The market will run weekly through the summer.
