Lakeside to Play Summer Music Festival at Unthank Park

Self Enhancement, Inc. (SEI) will host The Homecoming, the third annual summer music festival at Unthank Park (N. Kerby & N. Failing) on Saturday, August 18, 2018. The Homecoming will include live music, children’s play area, food carts, community organizations and much more. Musical performances include Lakeside, Larhonda Steele, Zoulful Muzic, Speakers Minds, Nafisaria and DJ Juggernaut. Free food will be provided to attendees from 3-6 p.m.

The Homecoming is a free event celebrating family, community and quality of life. This year's theme, “Iron Sharpens Iron” offers the opportunity to recognize a long-standing community member with an award for outstanding impact and influence in the African-American community. This year’s award recipient is coach and teacher Leon McKenzie, for his dedication to community and athletics for more than four decades.

In 1981, while North Portland was heavily impacted by the presence of gang activities and violence within the community, Tony Hopson, Sr., SEI’s president and CEO, used male basketball camps as a vehicle to provide hope and peace into African-American youth. These students and their families called the Center for Self Enhancement their second home for nearly 36 years. As a result of the increase in housing rates and the mass reconstruction of the neighborhood, many SEI students and families were displaced further East and North. No longer in walking distance of their second home, a number of students have been forced to decrease the amount of time spent in the SEI program.

SEI looks forward to this event as an opportunity to celebrate the communal society so many have strived to cultivate and a culture rooted in family, integrity and respect.

Link to Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/261798407986602/