North Nashville native Josh Lipscomb’s arrival as a festival promoter is as much defined by a journey through the daily news and social media as it is a tale about a rising local creative force amid a profound personal and professional evolution.
Thus, Saturday, October 15’s “Good Vibez Festival” represents much more than just a day of art, comedy, music, and entertainment. Instead, it’s a character study of how Lipscomb is doing his part to ensure that Music City’s African-American-defined roots are not lost in Nashville’s unprecedented socioeconomic boom.
“Old Nashville can embrace New Nashville — Good Vibez is about the city stubbornly denying the future or being unable to remember [Nashville’s] cultural history,” says Lipscomb to The Tennessean.
The festival will showcase original works for sale from twelve “well-established” artists, including Omari Booker, Caitlin Mello, and Lipscomb himself. The exhibition titled “Save Things For Later” highlights the cause of cultural preservation. Fifty percent of the proceeds from all art sold will be donated to the Black Nashville Assembly. This charity group describes itself as a “participatory democracy, Black organizing, and political engagement project.”
Insofar as music, the nationally-touring Black Opry collective will be featured. Lipscomb notes that he’s felt more “intrigued and welcomed” by the genre of late, so “bringing Black country music to North Nashville” is his attempt at engendering greater trust between Black Nashville natives and a genre that historically has not equitably represented them. Plus, Nashville-based rapper Mike Floss — last seen nationally as a narrator in Amazon’s February-released “For Love and Country” documentary — among others (the owners of local eateries Daddy’s Dogs and Slim and Husky’s will DJ live), will perform.
Plus, amplifying the Elephant Gallery’s relationship with Nashville’s comedians, Lipscomb will feature an edition of their monthly comedy event among his Saturday offerings.
Since August, he’s painted murals on buildings on and near North Nashville’s Buchannan Street and that area’s Elephant Gallery art space. This follows an eighteen-month journey for the firefighter and comedian (who works under his stage name of “Josh Black”), expanding a series of successful, acerbic social media videos making light of the awkward moments Nashville is having in its previously mentioned boom.
Foremost, his work yielded access to the city’s art scene in June 2021 via the Frist Art Museum.
Citing that he found the art world “cool,” he made a self-empowered decision to explore creating glued collages from old magazines on canvas. This quickly switched to painting what he perceived were 25 “horrible” abstract pieces. His collage work was scheduled to be highlighted by East Nashville’s nearly 20-year-old Tomato Art Fest, but it sold for $800 before being exhibited. Regarding his painting, he then partnered with downtown’s Julia Martin Art Gallery for a February 2022 exhibition of collages and abstract pieces — at that exhibition, all of his pieces sold.
When not growing in local renown as a commission-based Jean Michel-Basquiat-style impressionist artist and muralist hosting festivals, Lipscomb is a four-year veteran firefighter for the Nashville Fire Department. A month after his Julia Martin Art Gallery exhibition, he was suspended for 16 days over a tweet calling members of the Metro Nashville Council “white supremacists.” In response, he filed a lawsuit — which is still pending — against the fire department claiming the punishment is an unconstitutional restriction of free speech.
Concerning the 11 Nashville City Council members who wrote letters defending Black’s free speech, they will also be showcased at the Good Vibez Fest — they’re competing in an afternoon pie bake-off.
Lipscomb’s growth in the creative lane has developed from a secret passion to a vibrant part of his present and future in the past six months. He feels that his art best represents his “[weaponized] voice against [all manner of] oppression.”
“I’m defending my community in ways that matter,” says Lipscomb. “Art and comedy allow me to feel comfortable in my voice and giving voices to others.”
The Good Vibez Festival is the pinnacle moment in Lipscomb’s tumultuous 18-month creative emergence. Like East Nashville’s Tomato Art Fest, he intends for the event to become an annual showcase of the area’s rich cultural traditions. These, as defined by uplifting Black musicians as a part of the legendary Chitlin Circuit or educating Black businesspeople and intellectuals at the area’s three historically Black colleges and universities, are part of a “cool, rich history” that Lipscomb feels should be remembered.
Regarding how the Good Vibez Festival intersects with Nashville’s commercial and social explosion, Lipscomb has big aspirations that he feels are well within his reach.
“Joyous celebrations of local, grassroots creativity as we expand nationally [retain] pride in ourselves and our traditions. This is a special moment that demands to inspire timeless evolution.”
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Josh Black’s ‘Good Vibez Festival’ touts Nashville’s diverse future