Community Togetherness Fest celebrates five years in Lorain

LORAIN — For the fifth year in a row, music and basketball served as the catalyst to bring Lorain residents together during the Community Togetherness Fest. The event in Oakwood Park is hosted by The Grind League basketball league and centers on its annual 3x3 basketball tournament. The competition was fierce as teams played on customized and renovated courts, which The Grind League repainted last September. "We're celebrating one year of the court being renovated and painted by our organization," organizer Darius Winborn said. "It's just a blessing, man. Five (years), it's grown, it's been successful and since we painted the basketball court we've been invited to (NBA) All-Star Weekend in Indianapolis and we're being asked to do more things." The event had much more than basketball though, featuring a DJ booth staffed by Winborn — under the name DJ D*Grand — and other DJs, various vendors, community resource providers and live music from local band "aka & company." "This caps off the summer," Winborn said. "Somebody came out here from New York and they told me this reminded them of how hip-hop started. Just diverse cultures coming together in a park, having fun, learning about each other and growing from there." Playing the fest for the second year, aka & company lead singer Fayaven Barbee Jr. said that the group was a perfect example of that same diversity. The band draws members from across Lorain County and blends hip-hop, R&B, rock and other elements. Barbee is from Elyria and is an audio engineer in both Amherst and Lorain. "I see all these different genres throughout work and just being in the area, and we just kind of try and fuse it all together," Barbee said. "It's everything we were raised on, we've got players who came from gospel, came from a secular background and we just mix it all together in one glorious melting pot." Barbee said that seeing the Togetherness Fest grow and connect more people had been a rewarding experience. "It's beautiful," Barbee said. "The same way we try to bring everything together with music, this event brought everything else together. Music, sports, all these people. It's beautiful to see (Winborn) pull all these things together and make something like this happen. Looking at this court every time we're out here is like a testament of the power that we have to make things happen." After a half decade of success, Winborn said his goal now is expanding similar community-building events to other communities. He said that two cities in the area had contacted him expressing interest in hosting their own Togetherness Fest. "So many cities don't have the parks and rec department or don't have an outreach department for these types of things," Winborn said. "So if we can be a resource or agency to help them have an event in the summer, we want to do that." Contact Owen MacMillan at (440) 329-7123 or omacmillan@chroniclet.com.