It’s been over twenty years since the first Soul Summit took place at Fort Greene’s Cuyler Gore Park. When friends Jeff Mendoza, Sadiq Bellamy and Tabu came together to throw an open-air, Sunday afternoon park party, they had no idea they’d be birthing a cultural institution. Over its two decades and counting, Soul Summit has established itself as one of Brooklyn’s most beloved hubs of Black expression and community. Pushing back against the encroaching forces of gentrification, erasure and racist policing, Soul Summit stands for the rights of all people, and especially Black people, to claim ownership and use of public space, to share music, dance and culture freely. They are an inspiration, and we’re proud to host Soul Summit this Saturday at the Ruins, free with RSVP.

 

Read any interview with the organizers and their passion is palpable. The same goes for attendees discussing Soul Summit. Rather than try to explain the event ourselves, we’ve compiled a short oral history from interviews and discussions across the years. Some of the content below can be found in the excellent documentary Soul Summit: Doin’ It in the Park. Enjoy.

 

“What it means to me is having an opportunity to fill a void. You had programming of radio stations that weren’t really from here. And Soul Summit proved that the people don’t agree.”
-Jeff Mendoza, Soul Summit co-founder

“I just love music. I grew up with music. I came up cutting and scratching, as we call it for the old heads, all the way up to house music. I became discontented somewhat with what became hip hop. All of us started in something - hip hop - we didn’t call it that, and it wasn’t that. We’d cut and scratch records. You’d go to the parks, and you’d hear disco. I’d shock some of the hip hop guys, you’d hear disco at these so-called hip hop events.”
-Sadiq Bellamy, Soul Summit co-founder

“I grew up going to park parties. My first introduction to dance music was carrying crates for some older guys that were doing parties I never would have knew about or never would have been able to get into. So when we saw that this kind of park thing wasn’t happening the way we experienced it growing up, we figured we’d bring it back, but we’d bring it back with a twist.”
-Tabu, Soul Summit co-founder

“There was a vacuum for free outdoor music in New York. We wanted to fill the void.” -Sadiq Bellamy

“Black visibility, black presence, black lives, black bodies matter. Most especially in our open, shared spaces. We are in an urban environment, so any blade of grass you can touch, it’s an important thing to us. These spaces are a necessity, because that’s where you’re meant to feel safe. That’s where you’re meant to be able to go and be. We just wanted to gather Black folks, and it wasn’t in pain, it wasn’t in protest, just come use that park for that purpose.”
-Manushka Magloire, The Lay Out

 

“The concept was that all good things happen at the summit. We envisioned Fort Greene park, and you have to walk up to get to the monument, and you’re meeting as a community, as a family at the summit.”
-Sadiq Bellamy

“There is a thing in Black culture where dance and music and celebration and spirituality are interwoven”
-Brian Polite, Soul Summit attendee

“I liked surrounding myself with Black people. For ten years, I lived on Washington Park. I very much saw the change from when Soul Summit was every single Sunday, and it was this magical moment when you had all the Black people in Fort Greene. It made me feel at home.”
-Emily Anadu, The Lay Out

“As I stood there, I would hear ‘Norm! Norm!’ - all friends from Harlem. So many people from Harlem out here.”
-DJ Stormin’ Norman, Sundae Sermon Music Festival

“I’m a native New Yorker. Soul Summit is where everything happened. Me as the person and the community I’ve been able to cultivate - the inception was Soul Summit. I met Mr. Right Now, Mr. I-Thought-Was-Forever… life happened at Soul Summit. That’s where I meet friends, homies, I might have made some enemies I don’t know about. It’s an organism.”
-Manushka Magloire

“You can’t tell the history of house music without Black people. You can’t tell the history of house music without queer, LGBTQ people. If you try and tell it without those people, you’re telling a lie. A bold faced and entire lie.”
-Brian Polite

 

“It used to be every weekend. And then when gentrification hit, it slowed down.”
-Deborah Conton, Soul Summit attendee

“Going from a Black community to a gentrified community, where our culture is being policed… I’m livid.”
-Mae Fraser, Soul Summit attendee

“All these major entities, who are now sponsors, were against Soul Summit. But the people rallied. There were five calls made to the precinct and they reneged our permit. So the next morning, they got 6,000 calls. That was a special moment where the people took control of what they owned, which was the park. We have always carried ourselves as such - that the park belongs to the people.”
-Sadiq Bellamy

“Nobody really wanted to use the park. It wasn’t until 2007 that the park started getting regulated. That they started needing security plans, park permits, sound permits, insurance. For a grassroots event like Soul Summit, they are not making money off this event. This is a social service. This is a social infrastructure they’re building for free.”
-Kavati Kulkarni, Soul Summit attendee

”[Negative] stuff has never occurred. It self manages”
-Jeff Mendoza

“We are not stuck. We are not anti technology. We use social media, we use technology, but we also use good old fashioned community. No matter what phone comes out, community at the end will rule.”
-Tabu

 

“There’s always been a suspicion and skepticism around Black culture, Black people in particular. We understood it’s always important to have sovereignty over your culture and your artistic expression. We’re DJs and we always controlled what we provided. We brought that into the concept of Soul Summit. From in, out.”
-Sadiq Bellamy

​​“It felt like a huge family reunion. I saw so many familiar faces I hadn't seen since the pandemic and started a lot of new friendships that day. Walking through the crowd, you saw so many BIPOC enjoying the atmosphere and each other. It was stunning!”
-Kadar R. Small, Soul Summit attendee, 2022

“It’s such a wonder to be back on the block. Soul Summit’s 20-year anniversary! There’s a hunger and a thirst for soulful house music, there’s a thirst for peace, for love, for togetherness, and Soul Summit provides just that.”
-Sadiq Bellamy, 2022