Arts & Culture

There is no denying that the arts produced from the struggle, survival, and success of African Americans– music, fashion, dance, literature, theater, etc.…  are a major purveyor of  culture across the globe. Around the world African American culture is imitated, appropriated, and commodified. The culture created ways of speaking, wearing their hair, styling their clothes, moving their bodies, lifting their voices in song and penning their protests that are denounced when performed by them but celebrated when assumed by non Black cultures.

Historically, the exploitation of Black artists has taken many forms, from our performers having to enter nightclubs via the back door to entertain whites-only audiences, to the white washing of entire genres they created– folk, country, and rock n roll to name a few, to plagiarism, and a myriad other happenings of erasure and exploitation. Not to mention the segregated nosebleed seats Black patrons had to suffer in order to see artists from their own community.

Over the years York City has proudly cultivated its own cadre of makers and creators who contribute to our rich local culture. Sojourn Noir seeks to ensure that Black travelers are welcomed, respected and experience a sense of belonging as they engage in the enrichment arenas to which their culture so vastly shaped and contributed and  that they are exposed to the myriad of Black artists who continue to define and redefine every medium.