The Ames and Iowa State community came together for the very first Black Arts and Music Festival (BAMF) on Saturday and Sunday.

This event was held at the Ames Public Library and was put on by staff and volunteers. Tanvi Rastogi, teen librarian at the Ames Public Library, was the one to come up with the idea behind BAMF, in which she said it was important to amplify the voices of marginalized communities that often don’t have the voice to do so.

Rastogi said she came up with this idea while on the committee for Ames Pride Fest, which gave her inspiration to create an event that educates people but also celebrates culture.

“It’s hard when so many of the stories one sees about their community are grim,” Rastogi said. “Everyone deserves the chance to revel in all of the amazing things their community is putting out into the world, and that’s exactly what Pridefest does. I wanted to do something similar with the Black Arts and Music Festival.”

The festival kicked off at 9:30 a.m. Saturday, when children were encouraged to go to the Storytime Room to hear cultural stories in order to set the mood for the rest of the festival.

Following storytime, the first workshop that took place was over the art of printmaking held by Jamila Johnson. Johnson is a recent graduate from Iowa State who has many pieces of art displayed in the Memorial Union at Iowa State. The next day of the Black Arts and Music Festival, Sunday, Johnson held her own Artist Talk about her pieces that were displayed in the Ames Public Library.

Another workshop that was held on Saturday was Juliana Jones’ workshop on how to create paper art. Jones is a local artist based out of Ankeny. She creates 3D art that involves many mediums, textures, genres and cultures. Jones followed her workshop later in the day with the last Artist Talk at 4:30 p.m. Saturday in The Studio at the Ames Public Library.

Another of the artist talks on Saturday was that of Jamie Malone, an artist and recent graduate of Iowa State with a degree in biological/pre-medical illustrations. Throughout their artist talk, Malone explained their different influences of their art. They talked about how Baroque and Romanticism art, as well as the music Malone listens to, was a heavy influence on their art and how they create their art.

Another Artist Talk that took place on Saturday was Cameron Gray, whose work was displayed in the Gallery in the Ames Public Library. Gray is a graduate student at Iowa State, who uses art to identify social issues as well as the understanding of the black identity.

The youngest artist at the event was Amara Agba, a junior at Ames High School, who sees her future in graphic design and interaction design. On Sunday, she gave her artist talk about the pieces she had displayed at the Ames Public Library.

Slice the Celestial Sorcerer, otherwise known as Cameron Rayburn, an assistant teaching professor in aerospace engineering, was also at the festival to give a workshop titled “Sorcery: The Path to Making Magical Hip-Hop.” Rayburn explained how he makes his songs out of random sounds and sample tracks. Later on Saturday, Rayburn performed in the Farwell T. Brown Auditorium, where he took on his persona of Slice the Celestial Sorcerer and performed with his registered “hype-man” Source.

K.U.B was one of the performing art performers on Saturday as well. K.U.B, otherwise known as Kaleb Stevens, is a poet who uses words and rhythms to express important topics to those who listen. Stevens said that he dedicates himself to speak for those who cannot speak for themselves.

Another young performer who performed their art in the auditorium on Saturday was Theo Muhammad. Muhammad is a classically trained ballet dancer from Ames High School who has been dancing with the Ballet of Des Moines for three years and has been a part of many other classical dance academies and productions.

One of the last events to happen on Saturday in the auditorium was another performing art performance by Colo Chanel. Chanel is a Des Moines-based musician who takes her lyricism from the poetry that she writes and performs.

Other performances throughout the festival included those of the Ames High School Step Team, Jazzy Johnson and Reverend Doctor.