The Rise Project is hosting a free and family friendly event highlighting Austin’s Black freedom communities this Sunday at Kingsbury Commons in Pease Park. Rise Fest will feature local food vendors, hands-on gardening experiences, live music, poetry and conversations with elders of the community.

KUT’s Miles Bloxson recently spoke with the project’s founders.

This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.

Miles Bloxson: Back in 1928, a city plan excluded Black residents from certain parts of Austin, including the city’s first public park: Pease Park. One group is working to reclaim that history and reshape the narrative. Through the Rise Project, they’re hosting Rise Fest, an event honoring the history and cultural legacy of Austin’s Black freedom communities. It takes place this Sunday, March 29, from 2-5 p.m. at Kingsbury Commons in Pease Park. Joining me in the studio are the co-founders of The Rise Project, Stephanie Lang and Funmi Ogunro. Great to have y’all here.

Funmi Ogunro:  So happy to be here.

Stephanie Lang: Yes. Hello. Hello.

Bloxson: Can y’all first start by telling me how The Rise Project came about?

Ogunro: Yes, of course. So before the name Rise came about, we were just known as the Austin Black freedom communities documentary. I grew up in Austin, and I spent a lot of time in East Austin as a child, but I never knew what freedom communities were or heard the name.

And so Stephanie Lang told me freedom communities came about after emancipation. Black people built these communities all around Austin and lived in South Austin, East Austin, North Austin, and all throughout Travis County. We had our own homes and schools and so that’s how we started off with the documentary. Years later, now we’re still working on the documentary and it’s almost done and the name is now Rise.

Bloxson: Perfect. So Stephanie, you’re a seventh-generation Austinite. How important is it for you to make sure our stories are told?

Lang: So important, Miles. One of the things that was always, I would say troubling for me, as an adult was feeling like there’s this void of recognition of all the contributions that Black people have made to this city. And there’s so much that has been done. There’s so much that I wish I knew when I was a younger child, sitting in certain parts of Austin not feeling welcome at all, and then realizing that my folks were from these communities.

My folks made these communities into homes, which subsequently is part of why they were probably pushed out of there in the first place. So it’s so important. Before you can fully learn the history of any community, any city — whatever it is — to marginalize or pull out large sects of [those] who contributed so much, you’re not learning the full story. So it’s something we all need to learn. And history repeats itself, right? So learning about this history really speaks to where we are right now in this moment, because there’s nothing new under the sun.

Bloxson: And we’re all sitting here. Three Black women. From Austin. From different parts of Austin. Funmi, how important is storytelling in this work for you, especially when it comes to shifting hearts and shifting minds? Because for me, that’s what storytelling does.

Ogunro: I spent a lot of time on East 11th Street as a child. My mom had a nonprofit arts program and I participated in a lot of the programming and poetry and that art background and working with the Black community, my elders, has really influenced me as an artist. I didn’t know storytelling was the medium I would be choosing, but I believe spending so much time as a child on 11th Street is the reason why I’m now storytelling, because I’m telling stories of people that grew up in East Austin and all over Austin.

Bloxson: Funmi, what can people expect when they show up to Rise Fest? Because I know it’s gonna be a lot of good times there.

Ogunro: Rise Fest is gonna be a beautiful day of fun at Pease Park. It’s free, first of all, I gotta say that. I wanna let you know this is a family friendly event, so bring your kids. There’s gonna be a kids’ corner so your kids can come and be engaged. We’re gonna have the Sweet Home Baptist Missionary Choir from a freedom community, Clarksville, which is just right around the corner from Pease Park. They’re gonna open up the festival.

We’re also gonna have Austin’s poet laureate, Zell Miller. We’re gonna have one of the best DJs in town, DJ Ajah Monet. We’re gonna have different activations from some of our community partners like Austin History Center, Bethany Cemetery, Third Spaces, Black Austin Tours. There’s gonna be a gardening activity for families. You can plant a seed and take it home with you. So this is really a beautiful community event and it’s gonna be a great time. We’d love to see you out there.

Lang: And another one of the special, intimate parts of the fest is we’re gonna have a conversation with two really iconic in our lives — and now viral TikTok stars — elders, part of descendants of freedom community: Ms. Vessie Tutt and Ms. Floris Sorrells is also known as Ms. Flo. So a special time and like a little section off to themselves to have that conversation with interested festival-goers.

Bloxson: And how can people stay connected and keep up with the work that you all do?

Lang: Our website for sure: www.riseatx.org.

Ogunro: Please follow us on Instagram @rise_themovie, and it’s the same on TikTok, here we share stories of our elders and different oral history social media clips.