Cicely Mitchell is on her way to becoming a household name with the work that she is doing through the Art of Cool Project in Durham, North Carolina.

As one of the first black women to coordinate and run a successful music festival with internationally acclaimed headliners, Mitchell is changing the face of the music festival industry.

The Art of Cool festival (AOCFEST) is a three-day music festival that takes place in the tech hub of downtown Durham. While the focus and mission of the festival is to promote and preserve Jazz, the festival has expanded to jazz-influenced music and has incorporated hip-hop and alternative neo-soul into the selection. Previous lineup alumni include Kamasi Washington, Thundercat, The Internet and 2016 XXL Freshman, Anderson .Paak.

With three successful years of the festival under her belt, Mitchell is confident that this year's festival is guaranteed to impress. Common will be the headliner and will be accompanied by popular artists including George Clinton, Rakim, Goldlink, Nao, and Janelle Monae's artists, St. Beauty. The festival takes place April 28th-30th, 2017.

If you are wondering what the vibes will be this year's festival, imagine carefree spirits wandering through an industrial city, attending day parties, art shows, coding classes, brunch and ending the nights jamming out to a curated lineup of artists in historic venues that you won't be able to see at any other festival.

While the AOCFEST is her growing and profitable passion, Mitchell has still opted to keep her day job as a biostatistician. She received her bachelor’s degree from Tennessee State University in Nashville, and her Master of Science in biostatistics degree and her doctorate in biostatistics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In addition to her work with the festival, she is a senior statistician at a pharmaceutical company.

When asked about her determination to grow the festival, her motive was obvious: to preserve the genre for future generations.

"The genre of jazz is one of the few American art forms. The stigma of jazz is that it is for old people. We feel it is important to connect with young people to improvised black American music so that it can live on and be used as a base for more free musical expression."

You can learn more about Cicely Mitchell and AOCFEST at aocfestival.org. Will you be attending the music festival this year?

Bryanda

Writing since January 2017 · 1 story contributed