Acommunity is a thriving social culture. It is a place where families raise their children and hope to explore a rich and culturally vibrant community that affords safety, inspiration and enjoyment. The Southside Jackson community is no exception. The Af-
rican American community has thrived on the Southside the last 70 years, having once been a part of the Southeast neighborhood hub since the mid 1900's. After the mid to late 60’s Belden gentrification project, the Southeast community was split in half and the Southside offi-
Southside Summer Fest Weekend Kicks off with Live Karaoke
The Southside Festival Series 2025 edition began this past May 10th with the Local Authors Expo and Book Fair at the southside business C-Store & Deli. Summer Fest Weekend officially kicks off at Exchange Club Playground Friday July 25th and continues on Saturday and into Sunday.
It jumps off with the Karaoke Kickback at 6pm hosted by Bigman Genesis, a radio personality for Lansing’s WQHH 96.5. The Karaoke Kickback series has been a huge success in Lansing for several years and now comes to Jackson to kick off the Southside Summer Fest Weekend. The event begins at 6pm accompanied also by a special edition of More Than a Pretty Face Live Talk Show hosted by C-Dub of Catch My Vibe Radio. Exchange Club Playground is located at 300 E. Mansion St in Jackson, Michigan. For more details see the full schedule of events on the back page of this edition of the Southside Business Chronicle.
Welcome to the Southside Southside Business Chronicle Set to Launch Monthly Newspaper Periodical for Community based Businesses in Jackson
cially became its own distinct community divided by the former Airline Drive, now Cooper Street to form a new independent community that has developed a desire to grow and build a brighter future for itself. Welcome to the Southside Jackson community.
Southside Festival Series Jackson, MICHIGAN 517-257-9789
This June Southside Festival Series will launch an inaugural first edition of a new monthly periodical called the Southside Business Chronicle, to feature local businesses, community events, and stories about entrepreneurs from and around the Jackson area. It will be published in association with The Chronicle News, a print newspaper based in Lansing, Michigan since 1986.
The Soundside Business Chronicle will offer affordable business Ad space and feature stories on new emerging businesses and entrepreneurs, giving them more visibility and opportunities to reach a broader au-
dience throughout Jackson, with emphasis on Southside community businesses. Five thousand issues each month will be distributed across the surrounding area and a digital copy will also be available for download and review. The Southside Business Chronicle is envisioned to raise funds for the annual Southside Festival Series and money earned through Ad revenue will go directly to this event’s annual budget. The first monthly periodical will start August 1st. Ad spaces will cost between $50-$500. If you are interested in placing an Ad in the Southside Business Chronicle, please email: SouthsideSummerFest@gmail.com
Southside Summer Fest Weekend happening July 25th-27th
The Southside Festival Series is in its 7th annual year and is moving its Summer activities to the legendary Exchange Club Playground between Euclid and Mansion streets. Exchange has a rich history of summer events, from the Southeast Little League organized by Albert Peterson in the late 70s and early 80s, to the basketball tournaments held in the mid 80s into the early 90s.
This year’s Summer Fest Weekend kicks off on Friday July 25th with Karaoke Kickback, a live performance set hosted by Bigman Genesis of WQHH 96.5 and a group of amazing singers. Open mic for karaoke cover songs will also be available to anyone wishing to sing.
The Weekend continues on Saturday July 26th with the MoneyBall 3-on-3 Basketball Tournament, live music, dozens of vendors and plenty of food. Derry Petty the Step Professor of Xtreme Hip Hop also returns to Summer Fest and at 5pm will be hosting a special dance exercise opportunity for anyone wishing to get active and learn how to step exercise to Hip Hop music. Kids activities will also be happening near the playground area on Mansion street with a bounce house and playground access.
Happening also on Saturday is the 3rd Emerging
Entrepreneurs Business Expo hosted by T.Smith Business Consulting. This year’s guest panel includes Dr. Katena Cain, Ph.D, Michael Tubbs of Elite Quality Plus, Justin Counts, owner of All 4 Less, and Jackson County Chamber of Commerce Membership Manager Matt Prysiazny. The Expo will provide expert guidance and tips on Business Essentials and Documentation, Managing Business Credit, Business Coaching, and how to Grow your Business. The Expo starts at 1pm under the large central Tent.
On Sunday July 27th Summer Fest gets started with a special Sunday Jazz Brunch from 11am12pm hosted by Brandon Marceal, known as Soul Rocking Flute. Other Jazz musicians will join Brandon for the brunch set. The day continues with a fashion and hair show hosted by Detroit People Choice Award Model of the Year 2024 Greatness Brown. Her set will feature local fashion brands such as Gifted Hands, Kold Kreationz, MTAPF, Jakobi Smith, Motivation Over Everything, Jackson Embroidery and more. Hair fashion will also be featured in the show by local salons Pretty Distinct Beauty, Nikki’s Beautiful Blessings and Sit’n Pretty Hair & Nails by Crystal. The Fashion and Hair show goes from 3pm-4pm
The activities continue at 4pm with a special exhibition from Wrightway Boxing, featuring youth boxing workouts and sparring sessions led by KD Davis, a local boxer from Jackson who now heads the Wrightway Boxing gym for youth on Franklin and Fourth street in Jackson. Free for Vendors to register. Scan the QR code to register your business or organization.
MoneyBall Sportswear to Sponsor 3-on-3 Basketball Tournament during Summer Fest Weekend
Desmond Ferguson is wellknown as a retired professional basketball player and businessman. A graduate of Everett High School, the alma mater of Magic Johnson, Desmond played for the Portland Trailblazers in 2004 and a host of professional teams until his retirement in 2011. In 2002 he launched a sports apparel brand named after his childhood AAU team, MoneyBall. The business has seen considerable success
and has two stores in Michigan. The brand supplies dozens of schools with official athletic jerseys, uniforms and other sportswear accessories.
The Desmond Ferguson Foundation has been hosting a ProAm basketball league for over 20 years, supporting the aspirations of basketball players hoping to continue their career after High School into college. This year MoneyBall will sponsor the
Southside Summer Fest MoneyBall 3-on-3 Tournament led by Doc Anderson and Nacoya Davis, two well known athletes and coaches in Jackson. MoneyBall Sportswear will offer a total of $1,000 in gift card credit at MoneyBall Sportswear stores for the winners and will supply a number of giveaways. The tournament will be held on July 26th at Exchange Park from 12pm-6pm and is open to boys and girls teams for qualified students in grades 6-8 and 9-12. To register a team for the tournament, scan the QR code.
Honoring the Legacy of Elnora “Sweetie Pie” Moorman
Elnora Moorman would be proud to know her name has been used to name a park after her. In fact, she was the first Black resident of Jackson to have a street named after her located inside the Shahan Blackstone North apartments built in 1982. Yet she is no stranger to making history. She became the first African American and woman elected to the Jackson City Com-
mission (now City Council), and was appointed to the Parks Board and to the Jackson Housing Commission. Born in Dublin, Georgia on June 10th, 1913, she relocated with her family to Jackson in the 1940s. She worked as an Insurance agent, for the City of Jackson’s Community Development department and was the founder of the Negro Business and Professional Women’s Club.
Residents in Action, Leading Positive Change in Jackson
In the face of adversity in Jackson Michigan, Residents in Action. Inc. (RiA) serving as trusted and collaborative grassroots connectors emerged as pillars of progress, trailblazing critical spaces needed to support residents in need of essential help. Founded by Tashia Carter, a former long term employee at what is now Henry Ford Health-Jackson, Tashia felt the pressure and dire need for residents with lived experience to solve for and lead their own change by executing community driven strategies. From housing and food shortages to awareness and equitable engagement, RiA has stepped in to provide a wide array of services in partnership with other women leaders and their organizations.
Tashia tapped into other powerful women leaders in Jackson and partnered with Diane Washington, founder of Young People of Purpose, Salena Taylor, founder of Partial to Girls, Kesha Hamilton, founder of Diverse Minds Consulting, Myeshia Jones of Mondays with My, and Daveda Quinn, founder of Family Lifestyle Solutions. Together this powerful group of Black women recently purchased the TA Wilson Academy property where RiA has been providing housing shelter to residents in need of temporary housing inside the annex portion of the school.
RIA will continue serving as a central hub of backbone support for its core membership and is now preparing to utilize the whole school building to open and develop a resident led community center where its core partnerships will expand its assortment of programs, events and activities in a centralized location.. The building has over a dozen classrooms, a large gym and cafeteria, multiple offices, a large outside playground and courtvard area.
For more information, please visit the RiA Facebook page or website at www.residentsinaction.com
Her legacy and service to the Jackson community serves as the inspiration for not only her well known noted accomplishments, but also for being the site of the Southside Festival Series between 2020-2024 at Elnora Moorman Plaza and for this current edition of the Southside Business Chronicle, a newspaper serving the Jackson business and culture community of the Southside.
The History of Southside Summer Fest
Southside Festival Series began as a vision of H.A.P.E. (Helping All People Excel) in 2008 when the organization hosted the Southside Fall Festival at the King Center, bringing social service organizations, resource organizations and local small businesses together to provide direct access of their services to Southside residents. H.A.P.E. Founder & CEO Debra Green began that initial vision, and after 10 years former H.A.P.E. Chief Operating Officer and Program Manager Hakim Crampton brought it back to life when the Elnora Moorman Plaza area was cleared of trees and bushes, allowing a clearer vision of the space to be used to bring the Southside community together in celebration of Culture and Community.
In 2019 Hakim Crampton, founder and director of The Academic Mentoring & Education Network, partnered with JCAC (Jackson Citizens Advisory Council) to create a Southside Mural commemorating great leaders and community history that would be featured along the MLK Equality Trail at MLK Blvd and Damon Street. Yhosef Ware and Devon Camel and a team of other artists led the mural design and painting. To commemorate the completion of the Southside Mural and its public display, a planning team was formed to bring the vision of a Southside Summer Fest along the MLK Equal-
ity Trail southwest of Elnora Moorman Plaza to light.
In 2020 a new Southside Festival Planning Team then followed up with the continuation of Southside Summer Fest to be held annually each year along the MLK Equality Trail at the corner of Milwaukee and High Streets with Elnora Moorman Plaza as the Center of the Festival. Southside Festival Series then consisted of 4 monthly Festivals focusing on the celebration of Black Arts (May), of Juneteenth (June), of the health and safety of community through Heal The Hood Fest (July), and of bringing new and small entrepreneurs together for an Emerging Entrepreneurs Business Expo (Aug). In 2021 the team added Kwanzaa Community Dinner to the Series for a total of 6 events. In 2024 the team combined 3 of the monthly Summer fests into a single 3 day weekend Festival called Southside Summer Fest Weekend. The Annual Festival Series now comprises the Authors Expo in April/ May, The Southside Summer Fest Weekend in July and the Southside Winter Fest Kwanzaa community Dinner on December 26th.
The official Website for Southside Festival Series is: http://southsidesummerfes.wixsite.com/ southside-festival-s
