Freaknik founders want us to look forward, not back
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Freaknik founders James "Tony" Anthony Towns Sr., Monique Tolliver-Logan, Amadi Boone, Sharon Toomer and Emma Horton. Photo: Courtesy of Monique Tolliver
Freaknik's founders say folks should stop trying to revive Atlanta's culturally revolutionary event of the '90s, because it's time for the culture to initiate a new safe space for Black people.
The big picture: Monique Tolliver-Logan, James "Tony" Anthony Towns Sr., and Amadi Darryl Boone tell Axios that Hulu's new documentary, "Freaknik: The Wildest Party Never Told," accurately shows its origins as a safe space for historically Black college students.
- They said the film showed Freaknik's commercialization after "students lost control" of the annual event.
"Freaknik" was originally a picnic planned by the D.C. Metro Club, an Atlanta University Center group for students from Washington, D.C.
- Tolliver-Logan said they wanted to bring D.C. culture to the AUC, which included go-go music and dances like "the Freak."
- She said the music and dancing "wasn't freaky" or scandalous back then.
That gathering — which started with 50 students in Piedmont Park, —eventually grew into a citywide traffic-blocking party with more than 200,000 people.
- Boone said Freaknik "evolved from a D.C. event into an Atlanta event" once the local Black music industry started to use it to promote artists like Outkast.
- Tolliver-Logan said they inadvertently became "the original influencers."
- "We brought Chocolate City to Atlanta," Towns said.
The three founders said they're glad Freaknik helped Black artists blossom, but they're "saddened" by what it turned into.
- "No one wants to be around any criminal activity and abuse of women," Towns said about public safety concerns and reported sexual assaults at later iterations of the festival.
What's next: The founders created the D.C. Metro Club Reunited group to host annual cookouts with Freaknik's original participants.
- Freaknik isn't coming back. But they want young people to create the next event for themselves.
- "We are never going to be short on creativity to create new things," Boone said. "Let's all leave a legacy."