21st Annual African, African-American Cultural Arts and Music Festival May 23-24, 2008
WHAT IS KUUMBA?
Mission/Purpose
The word Kuumba means Creativity, and with that, Kuumba celebrates creativity, pride, tradition and culture of the African-American experience.
Jacksonville, FL - May 28, 2008
To Our Vendors and Performers: The 2008 Kuumba Festival is now officially over. Your presence at this year's event has helped to revive this great Community Tradition. This year the Festival was able to draw visitors and vendors from five states and performers from several countries including Africa, Madagascar, and England. For the first time in several years more than 40 fellow vendors were present at Kuumba, dressed in African Clothes,
Art, Painting, and in the spirit of Unity. The event also hosted a clothes, jewelry and foo giveaway to the less fortunate sponsored by two African American veteran service organizations, "A Motorcycle Diva" and Job Corps. One of the key highlights of the affair was the variety of food vendors, including:
Momma Simmons from Deltona, Rita's Hot meals to Go, The 3 Kinds of Shaved Ice, plus chicken, pastries and more.
We have listened to your comments on how to make the Festival better and promise to start next month on finding more ways to improve our historical event. One area in which we are working will be to bring better entertainment and a bigger headliner for next year's event. Please stay in constant contact with the Kuumba Website for updates. We will be posting pictures and video from this year's event soon. Entertainment on stage is one thing, but attendees come to see what's for sale. Our average attendee spends about 45 minutes checking out the booths and about 20 minutes watching the stage.
Most importantly, without you, there is no festival. We sincerely thank you for deciding to join us this year.
Sincerely:
Frederick D. Matthews Fred Matthews, Festival Chairman
Toscha Comeaux, red-hot jazz vocalist and Zenith Records recording artist visits Jacksonville, FL to perform live at the Kuumba Festival. Strongly influenced by the likes of Ella Fitzgerald, Stevie Wonder, and Anita Baker, Comeaux has shared the stage with such greats as Nat Adderly, Lou Rawls, Ray Charles, and Diana Ross, ‘This Could Be Love’may be classed a s a jazz album but Toscha exhibits incredible versatility as she mixes the flavours of smooth jazz, soul, R&B, latin and even a little urban ac on this wonderfully refreshing album.
Born in Hartford Connecticut, her grounding was in the Church, in the tradition of so many great American singers. She was trained at the Greater Hartford Academy of Performing Arts, obtaining a bachelor’s degree in Choral performance.. From there she gained a scholarship
to
the Bethune Cookman Concert Choral in Daytona and performed
with the Connecticut Opera and Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra.
Community Tradition. This year the Festival was able to draw visitors and vendors from five states and performers from several countries including Africa, Madagascar, and England. For the first time in several years more than 40 fellow vendors were present at Kuumba, dressed in African Clothes,
Art, Painting, and in the spirit of Unity. The event also hosted a clothes, jewelry and foo giveaway to the less fortunate sponsored by two African American veteran service organizations, "A Motorcycle Diva" and Job Corps. One of the key highlights of the affair was the variety of food vendors, including:
Momma Simmons from Deltona, Rita's Hot meals to Go, The 3 Kinds of Shaved Ice, plus chicken, pastries and more. 
Toscha Comeaux, red-hot jazz vocalist and Zenith Records recording artist visits Jacksonville, FL to perform live at the Kuumba Festival. Strongly influenced by the likes of Ella Fitzgerald, Stevie Wonder, and Anita Baker, Comeaux has shared the stage with such greats as Nat Adderly, Lou Rawls, Ray Charles, and Diana Ross,
