Madaraka Festival

Madaraka Festival Madaraka Festival brings the finest musicians in Seattle together with world renown artists and inno

The purpose of Madaraka Festival is to:

Celebrate the power of music and art in cultivating vibrant communities

Promote cohesion, economic empowerment, and African cultural heritage

Create a platform to showcase Seattle artists’ talent and to gain exposure

Provide Seattle with a powerful experience of music and multimedia arts

Raise funds for One Vibe’s programs in Seattle and Kenya

Commemorate Kenya’s independence/self-rule (June 1)

09/11/2026

What does your childhood smell like?

For Judy Lee, it smells like rain on New York concrete.

And Korean food cooking in the kitchen.

She immigrated to New York at six years old, first growing up in Queens before moving to the Bronx.

Her neighborhood was a mix of Korean immigrants and Puerto Rican families.

Music in the streets.

Kids running around on Halloween.

Family everywhere.

And a kind of freedom that let a middle school kid get on the subway, meet friends, explore the city, and discover New York for herself.

At the time, she didn't always appreciate what was on her plate.

Years later, she looks back and realizes she was eating incredible Korean food and growing up around a culture that gave her so much.

That's the funny thing about childhood.

Sometimes you don't recognize how rich your life is until you're old enough to look back.

The foods you complained about.

The streets you took for granted.

The freedom you thought was normal.

Eventually, they become the memories you miss.

Watch Judy Lee's full conversation on the Madaraka Festival Podcast.

09/10/2026

What did home sound like when you were growing up?

For Jeffrey Lee Cheatham II, it sounded like music.

But first, it smelled like Big Mama’s cooking.

Greens and chicken in the kitchen.
His grandmother’s house on Cherry Street in Seattle’s Central District.
Family everywhere.
Love everywhere.

Then came the colors.

Red. White. Gold. Purple. Black.

Vibrant. Exciting. Alive.

And the soundtrack?

90s R&B.
90s rap.
Rock and roll.
Reggae.

Bob Marley. Shabba Ranks.

Music was always playing.

Looking back, those weren't just songs.

They were memories.

They were family.

They were a neighborhood.

They were a childhood.

That's the power of nostalgia. One smell, one color, or one song can take you right back to a place you haven't been in years.

Sometimes, home lives in your senses long after you've left it.

Watch the full conversation on the Madaraka Festival Podcast.

09/09/2026

Sometimes you don't remember childhood by dates.

You remember it by the smell of the house.

Growing up in South Seattle, moving around meant carrying different memories from different places.

But some of the earliest memories were simple:

Open doors.

Fresh air moving through the house.

The smell of incense my mother loved to burn.

And the distinct smell of those old wooden buildings.

Those homes had a history of their own, originally built for Boeing workers around the World War II era, later converted into public housing.

By the time Eric Moore was growing up there, they had become something else entirely.

A place where families built lives.

Where children made memories.

Where a house became home.

It's easy to look at a neighborhood and only see the buildings.

But listen to someone who grew up there and you'll hear something different.

You'll hear history.

You'll hear family.

You'll hear the sounds and smells of a childhood that can never be recreated.

That's why stories matter.

Watch the full conversation on the Madaraka Festival Podcast.

09/08/2026

What do you do when you get access to something that many people never had?

You create access for someone else.

In this conversation, we talk about honoring the people and spaces that shaped us, and then using the opportunities we receive to open doors for the next generation.

As the Executive Director of Key to Change, founded a studio to provide violin and viola lessons to students in underserved communities.

Because music education shouldn't be reserved for the people who can already afford it.

Sometimes the most meaningful part of building something is knowing that someone else will walk through a door because you decided to open it.

That's what legacy looks like.

Not just what you accomplish.

But who gets a chance because you did.

Watch the full conversation on the Madaraka Festival Podcast.

09/07/2026

What does home smell like to you?

For , it smells like magnolia flowers.

Growing up in the sticks of Central Louisiana, she remembers childhood through the sights, the sounds, and the smells.

But when she thinks about those memories now, so many of them lead back to her mother.

Her mother’s favorite flower.

The way she created home.

The little things she did that, at the time, probably felt ordinary.

Years later, those are the things that remain.

Because sometimes home isn't a place you remember.

It's a feeling someone gave you.

And sometimes, all it takes is a familiar smell to bring the whole thing back.

Listen to the full conversation on the Madaraka Festival Podcast.

08/19/2026

A legacy isn't something you leave behind.

It's something you build while you're still doing the work.

Receiving the Key to the City was an honor. But what stayed with me was what came next:

"I'm doing the work so I can pass the baton onto you and the other younger generations."

That's the part we don't talk about enough.

The goal isn't to hold the baton forever.

It's to keep moving in your lane, find the people coming behind you, and know when it's time to put your hand down so someone else can reach up.

Because if you're not moving forward, you can't pass anything.

And if the next generation isn't moving forward either, the baton gets dropped.

Legacy isn't about being remembered.

It's about making sure the work continues after you've handed it over.

That's the kind of elder we need.

And that's the kind of younger generation we need to become.

Watch the full conversation on the Madaraka Festival Podcast.

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5100 Rainier Avenue S
Seattle, WA
98118

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