Art Of Cool Fest 2019: Friday Night (9/27) Lineup At Durham Bulls Athletic Park

Durham, NC – Three-time GRAMMY® award-winning singer-songwriter, New York Times best-selling poet, and critically acclaimed actor Jill Scott will headline the Art of Cool Festival (AOCFEST) on the opening night. Produced by The DOME Group LLC, the 2019 sixth Annual Art of Cool Festival will be held September 27-29th in downtown Durham. The main venue will be the Durham Bulls Athletic Park (DBAP), located at 408 Blackwell Street. Featuring a range of R&B, Neo Soul, Hip-Hop, Jazz, alternative and spoken word performances, and speakers, in addition to the DBAP, AOCFEST will include 5 other venues: the Durham Armory, Motorco Music Hall, Carolina Theatre, The Pinhook and The Masonic Lodge.

Dreamville Records singer-songwriter Ari Lennox who hails from Washington D.C. will also perform at AOCFEST Friday evening at the DBAP. That same evening, classically-trained string instrumentalists and hip-hop duo Black Violin, NC native and saxophonist Marcus Anderson, songstress Yolanda Rabun, and “Mr. Lawd Have Mercy” DJ Bro-Rabb, will take that same stage.

“We’ve got a fantastic lineup and activities planned for AOCFEST 2019,” said Sulaiman Mausi, CEO, The DOME Group LLC. “Together with our sponsors – Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina, American Tobacco, APLUS Test Prep and North Carolina Arts Council – we will deliver a great cultural experience for loyal Cooligans and newcomers alike.”

Art of Cool Festival ticket offerings includes General Admission and VIP. Local hotel partners are offering special AOCFEST rates and packages available on a first-come, first-served basis.  RFID wristbands will be used for Show entry this year. Festival-goers are encouraged to get their tickets early so that RFID wristbands can be delivered to their homes and they can avoid waiting onsite.

For more details, visit www.aocfestival.com and follow Art of Cool Festival on Facebook, and AOCFEST on Twitter and Instagram.

Scroll down to learn more about the AOCFEST performers for Friday night at the DBAP:

JILL SCOTT

Born in 1972 in North Philadelphia, Jill Scott grew up with her mother, Joyce, and grandmother. After a rough but memorable childhood, Scott attended Temple University, studying secondary education. She was planning on becoming a high-school English teacher. As a student-teacher, her fellow professors disapproved of her unique method of teaching the kids: she often incorporated singing and melody in order to help with memorization. Due to the negative comments, she quit. Shortly thereafter, a friend helped her in joining a local theater troop. After some hard work, she earned a spot on the Canadian cast of Rent, began to do poetry readings and befriended some big names in the Philly artistic community, included DJ Jazzy Jeff (DJ Jazzy Jeff). It was here that Scott’s musical career took off.

Encouraged by Jazzy Jeff and Ahmir-Khalib Thompson (Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson) of the hip-hop group The Roots, Scott wrote several songs in only three days during the summer of 1999. One of them, entitled “You Got Me,” was performed by Erykah Badu and The Roots, and won a Grammy for Best Rap Performance (Duo or Group). A few months later, after Jeff burned 100 demo CDs and marketed the soul singer, Jill Scott signed with the new label Hidden Beach.

Finally, after much deliberation, “Who Is Jill Scott? Words & Sounds, Vol. I” was released in July 2000. It featured music that was youthful enough for the younger generation and soulful enough for those above 40. Accolades came pouring in for her unique contribution to hip-hop: “Who Is Jill Scott?” was certified platinum, and she received three Grammy nominations (including one for Best New Artist), three NAACP Image rewards and one Soul Train Award for Best Female R&B Album. Her fame carried her on stage as she performed on VH1’s Divas Live with Aretha Franklin; speaking of Aretha, Jill Scott was the 2001 recipient of the Aretha Franklin Award as “Entertainer of the Year” at the Lady of Soul Awards.

Never limited to music, Jill Scott is a true multimedia brand across books, clothing, TV, and film. Jill starred in Get On Up: A James Brown Biopic; alongside Tyler Perry & Janet Jackson in the #1 national movie series Why Did I Get Married? (Pt. 1 and 2), Baggage Claim, Steel Magnolias, and Sins of the Mother. Jill was cast as the lead character in the HBO/BBC mini-series filmed on location in Botswana, The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency, a Peabody Award-winning show directed by the late Oscar Award-winning director Anthony Minghella.

A consummate writer at heart, she penned The Moments, The Minutes, The Hours, a compilation of poems that instantly became a New York Times bestseller. Scott also developed an intimates line for Ashley Stewart and founded Blues Babe, a registered 501(c)3 foundation that has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to support minority students pursuing college degrees.

Jill released her highly anticipated 5th studio album WOMAN on July 24, 2015 which opened on the music charts at #1 giving Jill her 2nd consecutive number one album. After a nationwide sold-out tour in Summer 2015, Jill is working on Lionsgate’s Coco and FX’s Snowfall. She is currently starring in BET+ series First Wives Club. SOURCE

ARI LENNOX

A forthright lyricist and understated vocalist, Ari Lennox has been the one-artist R&B contingent of J. Cole‘s Dreamville roster since 2015. The singer and songwriter made her commercial Dreamville debut in 2016 with the Pho EP and followed up in 2019 with her first album, Shea Butter Baby, which hit the Billboard 200 chart at number 104. Originally from Washington, D.C., Ari Lennox (born Courtney Shanade Salter) made her first moves during the first half of the 2010s with the Five Finger Discount mixtape, the Ariography EP, and tracks such as “Bound,” all of which she uploaded from 2012 through 2014. In 2015, she began an alliance with J. Cole’s Interscope-affiliated Dreamville label through a featured appearance on Omen’s “Sweat It Out” and a showcase on the Revenge of the Dreamers II compilation standout “Backseat.” The next October, Dreamville issued Lennox’s Pho, an EP [READ MORE…]

BLACK VIOLINS

Named after an album by swing era violinist Stuff Smith, Black Violin is a violin and viola-playing hip-hop duo from Florida consisting of classically trained musicians Kevin Sylvester (“Kev Marcus“) and Wilner Baptiste (“Wil B“), who incorporate a variety of genres into their distinctive string fare. The pair met as high-school students in a Fort Lauderdale performing arts program and formed the group after attending separate universities. Quickly gaining a reputation for their dynamic performance style, the duo received national exposure after an appearance with Alicia Keys at the 2004 Billboard Awards and winning the talent show Showtime at the Apollo in 2005. Amidst mixtape releases, they issued their eponymous debut album in 2008 and Classically Trained in 2012, earning support spots on tours for, among others, Wu-Tang Clan, Ciara, Aerosmith, and Kanye West along the way. In 2014, Black Violin signed with Universal Music Classics, which released their third LP, Stereotypes, in 2015.

MARCUS ANDERSON

An incredible act and one worth watching, saxophonist Marcus Anderson is the golden child shining among stars. With 10 studio albums on his list of accomplishments, the fusion jazz artist brings R&B, Pop, Rock, Latin, and Funk to make music that puts listeners in another atmosphere. Charting number one in both categories of Billboard’s Smooth Jazz and Sirius XM’s Watercolors with his exceptional hit “A Cup Of Joe” from the album AND Coffee, the Spartanburg, SC native is delivering major music in a humble way. His work with the late Prince and the New Power Generation led him to join stages with the likes of Ceelo Green, Judith Hill, Stevie Wonder, and Liv Warfield just to name a few, where he had become a key contributor in these touring band. Prince also featured Marcus on his last release Hit N Run Phase 2, playing on “Revelation” and “Look at Me Look at You.” Anderson is an act that puts on a show for and with household names. Whether he is performing for dignitaries such as President Barack Obama, Jesse Jackson, and Hillary Clinton or blazing the [READ MORE…]

YOLANDA RABUN

Having graduated from a renowned performing arts high school in her hometown of Atlanta, Georgia, Yolanda Rabun honed her singing and stage skills from a young age. She is a fierce songstress and North Carolina based recording artist who also is versatile enough to handle all styles of music, although she favors jazz and soul. Rabun exploded onto the jazz scene first on Stanley Baird’s 2007 Traffic Jam hit single, “I Want 2 Love You,” and, in 2011, released her debut CD project, “So Real,” on which she co-wrote several songs, including the title song. In 2012, Rabun infused Soul, R&B, Gospel, Folk, Smooth and Traditional Jazz on her sophomore solo album, “Christmastime,” and followed in 2013 with the Adult Contemporary single, “Hold on To Your Dreams.” A skilled singer with a natural storytelling instinct, Yolanda Rabun comes out the gate stunning her live audiences with her endless [READ MORE…]

DJ BRO RABB

 DJ Bro Rabb (Phillip Bell III) was born and raised in Durham, North Carolina. After attending a company party with his mother at the age of 8 years, he was introduced to a live DJ set up and skills, by his middle school years, he was starting to DJ small events around his hometown of Durham. As his experience and following grew, his career took off and put him on stages with major artists such as Rakim, Kid Capri, Nas, KRS-ONE, Big Boi from Outkast, Big Daddy Kane and many more. He went on to work at both Duke University and North Carolina Central University as a Mixshow DJ from 1997 until 2006. DJ Bro Rabb joined up with a group of DJs called The World Famous Butta Team, which also includes Skaz Digga and DJ ScottyRock. As part of that team, Bro Rabb worked on a critically acclaimed documentary called “Welcome 2 Durham” that went on to win several independent film awards and was featured on ABC World News. The Butta Team released a soundtrack for the documentary and a single “Welcome 2 Durham” with Legendary Big Daddy Kane and the now reunited Little Brother group, which was produced by Grammy Winning Producer 9th Wonder. 

ABOUT THE DOME GROUP LLC

The DOME Group, LLC is a trusted producer of live entertainment events, including top-billed concerts and music festivals for both urban and mainstream markets since 2007. Headed up by husband and wife team Sulaiman and Lesleigh Mausi, The DOME Group owns and operates the Durham NC-based Art of Cool Festival. With two regional offices in the U.S., The DOME Group LLC provides programming for some of the most state-of-the-art venues including The Aretha Franklin Amphitheatre, Greensboro Coliseum, Durham Performing Arts Center as well as Chevitz Arena in St. Louis, MO. The company also books major artists for university homecoming shows, community events and for corporate clients.

For more details, visit www.aocfestival.com and follow Art of Cool Festival on Facebook, and AOCFEST on Twitter and Instagram.