Questlove's 2021 'Summer of Soul' Revived 1969 Harlem Festival, Probing 50 Years of Black History Neglect
Updated
Updated · The A.V. Club · Jun 6
Questlove's 2021 'Summer of Soul' Revived 1969 Harlem Festival, Probing 50 Years of Black History Neglect
3 articles · Updated · The A.V. Club · Jun 6
Summary
Questlove’s breakout as a filmmaker came with “Summer of Soul,” which unearthed long-unused footage from the 1969 Harlem Music Festival and reframed it as both concert film and historical inquiry.
The documentary asks why a major Black music celebration in Harlem—held around the same time as Woodstock—was largely forgotten while Woodstock became canonized in popular memory.
Archival performances by Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, Mahalia Jackson, The Staple Singers, Gladys Knight & The Pips and others drive the film’s musical core while supporting its argument about media neglect.
By pairing the restored footage with questions about who gets remembered, the film broadens from a festival chronicle into a critique of how significant moments in Black history were overlooked.