Black Coffee and Friends
Frank Ogawa Plaza, Oakland
April 6, 2024
What is the juncture of house music fans, Afrobeats, West Coast culture, and a chilly April Saturday, you might ask? An all-day festival with two stages, half a dozen vendors, more bar stands than I could count, live art, and a couple thousand attendees from the Bay and beyond dancing on the steps of City Hall’s mini amphitheater and sprawled into neighboring Clay Street.
Produced by Oakhella, Afrobeats Oakland, Hotbox, DJ Dials, and Vate Creative, this past weekend’s event was a follow-up to last year’s success bringing South African DJ and producer Black Coffee to the town.
One section of lawn was dedicated to the local vendors, with a variety of clothing, body oils, and other goods on offer, along with oversized lawn games.
Parked front and center upon entrance was local painter Timothy B, deep in his canvas and brushes, providing live art for guests to watch in progress.
Fun and fly fits, though not a prerequisite for entry, were on full display, with many attendees decked out in metallics, faux furs, and more patterns than bodies. The Afrobeats stage was on a closed-off block of Clay, which became a haven for dancers of all ages and creed, some staying low-key and other taking full advantage of the loosely filled street. While the crowd size varied moment by moment, the hypnotically fun Ampaino and Afrobeats kept people moving, regardless how alone they might look.
The looks did not mean folks were too tight to get down.
At 6:35 p.m., at the Afrobeats stage, with the assistance of one Sean Paul, I witnessed the turn into evening time: Tthe ass-throwing I’d been expecting from the get-go had finally commenced, thank the music gods.
Once dusk had fallen, the Giving Tree lit up, coming alive in a way his brown daylight skin did not hint at: a fun surprise and great way to help illuminate the asphalt-turned dance floor.
Dynamic, powerhouse artistic twin duo Coco and Breezy led an adoring (obsessive?) crowd in light dancing and twisting, their ultra-hip vibe oozing into the air around them.
“Very Matrix,” said my friend, clearly envious they could pull the look off while he could not.
Continuing to take in the sounds and sights (mostly of fun attire), we all grew chillier and chillier, some of us (me) constantly bemoaning our choice of jacket, even before sunset.
But, not wanting to wimp out before the headliner, I stuck it out to catch at least part of Black Coffee’s energetic and pulsing set before my bright red sausage fingers willed me indoors.
The previous set had leaned a bit modern EDM, dark and nearing techno-trance (at least to uninitiated electronic ears), but Black Coffee, a veteran of the house scene, brought things back down a notch. He boomed into every bit of the body, but moved from the chest-shaking beats of his predecessor to deep in the ear canal, unrelenting for seconds, a minute, maybe two, before brightening back up, lighter, jazzier, only to crash back down, thundering, into your soul.
Simple but effective light design on both city hall and the building facing pulsed in time with the beat, bright and beautiful, bringing life to the stone facades, if just for an hour.
I certainly hope to see such central public spaces used for artistic endeavors with more frequency. And with organizers like Oakhella devoted to centering ”high-quality event experiences that meld the curation of top-tier superstars with local and upcoming talent,” this feels more and more possible. As co-founder Bijou McDaniel states, “Being given a platform to work with an artist like Black Coffee and curate a lineup with house music legends like Marshall Jefferson to rising stars like Coco & Breezy is a dream come true for us. Every detail is intentional and thought out so we are so excited for our audience to experience everything we’ve worked on — from two stages of killer DJs playing global sounds to a local vendor marketplace, food court, and live artists.”
So cheers to more (Black Coffee) shows, community involvement, and raising of local voices for the fun of all. Let’s just wear a bigger coat.
