The annual MOJA Arts Festival, a celebration of Black and Caribbean arts and culture, is right around the corner, promising a stellar mix of music, food and more to the Holy City.
Kicking off the Sept. 25 – Oct. 5 event is this week’s release of the event’s 2025 poster, “Life Witness – What is Your Story,” a mixed-media collage started in 2003 by Summerville artist Christine D. Johnson.
According to the artist, the collage “represents us witnessing life from our unique perspectives. It is an encouragement to tell your story, because it is significant and it may have a transformative impact on someone’s life.”
19 events at this year’s festival
MOJA Artistic Director Charlton Singleton, a Grammy award-winning local musician, has been hard at work guiding the artistic planning and program development for the coming festival. This year’s 11-day festival includes 19 different events.
“We have all the mainstays, the community events as I like to call them,” he said. “The parade is the first thing out of the gate on Sept. 25. The next night we have the reggae block dance, and the following Wednesday we have MOJA on Ann Street.
“These are all block parties that have really been the cornerstone of the festival for the last 40+ years,” Singleton said. “There’s so many different activities that are happening when you have these events. It’s good music, it’s good food, it’s arts and crafts, there’s dancers and various artists doing things. It’s a total community celebration.”
Singleton said there are plenty of new shows to get excited about, too, including a concert by jazz artist Adam Hawley — one of the most in-demand, chart-topping jazz guitarists in the world. He’ll be at Dock Street Theatre on Sept. 30.
While big names are coming in from all over, Singleton said what stuns a lot of festivalgoers each year is the amount of local artists who perform.
“One thing that I’ve noticed over the years, with the MOJA Arts Festival and us celebrating all these African American and Caribbean art forms, a lot of times people come out to hear this great music, they say, ‘Oh man, where did you find them?’ And we say, ‘Columbia.’ ‘West Ashley.’ ‘Ladson.’ ‘James Island.’ It just goes to show how much talent is right here in the Lowcountry.”
Singleton recommends you pick out at least three or four different events you can get yourself to.
- For a full lineup of MOJA events and ticket information visit mojafestival.com.
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