Every August, the Island comes alive with a celebration of African American heritage and Black culture through books, films, music, and art.
These events serve to honor the long and rich history of the Black community on the Island, which is centered around Oak Bluffs. Every year, the packed calendar of star-studded events seem to draw in more and more visitors from across the country as it kicks off with Legacy Week for the network of historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs). The circle, it seems, is always widening.
To Islanders who live here year-round, it is a proud occasion to watch the celebrations of Black artists and authors garner so much well-deserved attention. And it is also testing the limits of just how much the Island can handle, and to be candid, it can cause a few headaches for those trying to join in the celebration.
A hotel room in Oak Bluffs? Forget about it. Parking on Circuit Avenue? Be smart and take a bus. A dinner reservation at popular O.B. venues such as Black Joy Kitchen or Sweet Life? Well, you better have made your plans well in advance. And trying to get a seat at a major venue like Michelle Obama giving a talk about her new book? You need to know the tickets to that event sold out completely in just a few hours the day it was posted.
The demand to hear the former First Lady was running so high that organizers of the Martha’s Vineyard Book Festival (MVBF) and Author Series announced that she would hold a second event just to accommodate the huge crowd of fans of her work. And that second event is expected to sell out just as fast.
Obama will be discussing her No. 1 bestseller, “The Look,” with fellow summer resident of the Island Michele Norris, who is a longtime NPR reporter and now MSNBC senior contributing editor and founder of the Race Card Project.
“The response has been unlike anything in our history,” said Suellen Lazarus, director of the MVBF. “We are grateful Mrs. Obama recognized the community’s enthusiasm and agreed to a second event.”
For a small community newspaper like this one, this high wattage of talent and staggering number of events can present a challenge to cover every event worth writing about — from the annual Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival to Harlem’s Fashion Row House, to the comedy fest, to MV Soulfest. We can’t get to all of them. But we do our best, and we are fortunate to have our VOICES columnist, Sharisse Scott-Rawlins, who provides thoughtful coverage for the paper and through her VOICES bySharisse newsletter.
As Scott-Rawlins puts it, “Every August, something quite remarkable happens on Martha’s Vineyard. From the outside looking in, it can look like a calendar full of events. But beneath the schedule is something far more profound. On Martha’s Vineyard, August has become a living celebration of Black legacy. Martha’s Vineyard, especially Oak Bluffs, has become one of the nation’s most enduring symbols of Black belonging.”
Scott-Rawlins points out that generations have gathered here on the Island not simply to vacation, but to rest, reconnect, create, organize, dream, and remind one another of what is possible.
She adds, “It is a place where history lives alongside possibility. Perhaps that is why August feels so different. It is more than a celebration of Black excellence. It is a celebration of the communities that have intentionally protected spaces where Black culture, joy, creativity, and legacy continue to thrive — and a reminder of why those spaces matter now more than ever.”
