Problems of urban blight, food deserts and ultimately gentrification plague poorer neighborhoods of color at disproportionate rates. Simply put, lower-income city neighborhoods put more precedence on surviving urban-ills than living sustainably, as a trend. To address that issue in our Nation’s Capital, two young visionaries set out to change how urban communities looked at solutions to the aforementioned problems. Brandon McEchern and Marcus Allen, both from South Central, LA, started as a t-shirt company with a message and what they’ve turned their empire into is quite impressive.
Since their t-shirt days, they have successfully organized dual food and music festivals in Washington D.C., .
“The current concept didn’t take shape until I moved to Los Angeles shortly after,” said McEchern in an interview with Ebony. “For the first few months, I was living in Santa Monica and traveling to the South Central (Crenshaw District) for my haircuts. During those trips, I’d observe the contrast between the way in which residents of Santa Monica and Compton engaged health and social responsibility. At that point, I realized that Broccoli City had more to offer the world than just organic T-shirts. We needed to leverage our platform to build healthier communities of color.”
Since choosing DC as a host city, the organization has had several big name artists perform from Joey Bada$$ to Erykah Badu and even Solange for this year’s event. Also new this year is the conference and lecture aspect of Broccoli City Fest. There will be a diverse panel of professionals speaking, ranging from companies and corporations like Roc Nation to Beats By Dre. This extension of the festival is surely in line with the original purpose (reported to the D.C. community via NBC 4: “[to] use music to bring people together while promoting an accessible, environmentally sustainable lifestyle.”
