World Famous Hip-Hop Family Day Partners with the Ernest A. Finney, Jr. Cultural Arts Center to Announce 2023 Festival Headliner
COLUMBIA, SC – June 29, 2023 – Love, Peace & Hip-Hop will announce its 2023 headliner on Saturday, July 1 at 3:00 PM for the return of World Famous Hip Hop Family Day this August.
The festival headliner announcement will be made at the Ernest A. Finney, Jr. Cultural Arts Center, located at 1510 Laurens Street, Columbia, SC.
Named for Ernest A. Finney, Jr., the renowned South Carolina lawyer who defended more than 6,000 civil rights demonstrators in the 1960s and who, in 1994, became the first African-American Chief Justice of South Carolina since Reconstruction, the Finney Cultural Arts Center focuses on the celebration of music, visual art, poetry, dance, theatre, the culinary arts, and other community-building and life-sustaining activities.
“We are so excited to be part of this. It's the 50th anniversary of hip hop, and Hip Hop Family Day is going to reveal the headliner for their 2023 festival here at the center,” says Nikky Finney, executive director of the Finney Cultural Arts Center, recipient of the National Book Award for poetry, and University of South Carolina Distinguished Professor. “As a cultural arts center, we realized that our missions are inextricably linked, so listen up in the future for more announcements about our partnership with Love, Peace & Hip-Hop regarding music, healing, true wealth – all the things we both want to happen in our communities.”
Hip Hop Family Day Founder FatRat Da Czar notes, “I was familiar with Nikky Finney’s work as a poet, but after learning more about what her father, Justice Finney, and Kevin Gray had done respectively in their lifetimes, our partnership seemed to be a natural fit. The Ernest A. Finney, Jr. Cultural Arts Center is the destination for change in arts and humanity, which is exactly what Love, Peace & Hip-Hop is all about, using hip hop music and culture to unite, heal, and mobilize.”
“The work of Love, Peace & Hip-Hop aligns beautifully with the work of the Finney Cultural Arts Center and we are excited to develop this alliance to help propel both organizations forward in their service to the communities, families, and individuals of South Carolina,” says Janet Parenti, Festival Coordinator.
Open to the general public, the 2023 headliner announcement for World Famous Hip Hop Family Day at the Finney Cultural Arts Center is part of a daylong celebration of the late longtime civil rights activist, author, and Railroad BBQ restaurateur Kevin Gray.
Ernest A. Finney, Jr. Cultural Arts Center
The Ernest A. Finney, Jr. Cultural Arts Center is focused on the making of art, the keeping of community, living Black history, and the ongoing generational celebration of music, visual art, poetry, dance, theatre, the culinary arts, and other community building and life sustaining activities. Located in Columbia, SC’s Robert Mills Historic District and just across from the Waverly Historic District, the arts center is Named for Civil Rights leader and the first African-American Chief Justice of South Carolina since Reconstruction, The Honorable Ernest A. Finney, Jr., the arts center is located just behind Railroad BBQ in Columbia, SC’s Robert Mills Historic District and across from two historically Black colleges, Allen University and Benedict College, in the Historic Waverly District of Columbia.
World Famous Hip-Hop Family Day
Honored by Family Circle Magazine as the Top Family-Friendly Festival in South Carolina and among the Top 50 in the nation, World Famous Hip-Hop Family Day is an unforgettable celebration of music, art, and dance. A FREE, family-first event, this black-owned and operated festival has partnered with respected national, state, and local entities like the City of Columbia, WellCare, HeadCount, AARP, US Army, Columbia Museum of Art, EdVenture Children’s Museum, and Richland Library, the Koger Center for the Arts at the University of South Carolina, and the Ernest A. Finney, Jr. Cultural Arts Center. World Famous Hip Hop Family Day returns to the Columbia festival scene at the Koger Center for the Arts at University of South Carolina on Saturday, August 19, 2023 in commemoration of the 50th birthday of hip-hop culture, whose origin date is widely recognized as August 1973.