'ONE OKC' Street Festival To Use Art, Music To Help Highlight New Development

An upcoming street festival is all about partying with a purpose in northeast Oklahoma City. This is the 4^th year for the ONE OKC, but signs of redevelopment in the area are just now starting to show. 

At the heart of historically Black Oklahoma City, change is underway. Where dilapidated and vacant properties sat for years, new businesses are now emerging along Northeast 23^rd Street, and festival organizers want the world to know.

“It’s called ONE OKC for a reason,” said Ward 7 city councilwoman Nikki Nice, “and it’s to connect northeast Oklahoma City with the rest of the community.”

Nice has helped host the event since its inception, with a personal connection. She was born and raised here.

The key for organizers to get their neighbors involved is to draw them in with musical performances, public art projects and kid-friendly activities. Once they arrive at the corner of Northeast 23^rd Street and North Rhode Island Avenue, they will find the Building Tomorrow tent, showcasing new developments and businesses as well as providing health screenings and financial advice.

President of Northeast OKC Renaissance, Inc. Dr. Quintin Hughes, Sr. explained, “When these establishments come online, (locals) will already be used to kind of coming this way and they’ll be ready to just engage and connect with these businesses.”

Nice added, “We want all the people who have been here, lived here before, to come back. We want them to invest in the community, and we want them to help and make it thrive as we once knew northeast Oklahoma City has been and will be.”

The goal is to make this happen within the next two years, and key to it all is public support.

“We’re working with the Alliance for Economic Development to gain more community feedback on what the community would like to see in terms of placemaking within the core of northeast Oklahoma City,” Hughes said.

You can add your feedback at the festival from noon to 4 p.m. on June 8. For more information, click here.