Fire In Little Africa

Fire in Little Africa is a multimedia hip-hop project that marks the 100th anniversary of the 1921 Tulsa race massacre. Conceptualized by DJ, producer, academic, and community organizer Stevie "Dr. View" Johnson, it has yielded a highly collaborative and like-titled album issued through Motown.
A native of Longview, Texas, Johnson headed to Norman, Oklahoma in 2007 to attend the University of Oklahoma. After he earned a PhD in Higher Education Administration, he and his family moved upstate to Tulsa, where he was hired as manager of education and diversity outreach at the Woody Guthrie Center and the Bob Dylan Center. Aiming to commemorate and raise awareness of the horrific racist attack that took place 100 years earlier in his adoptive home, Johnson first involved Tulsan artists Steph Simon, Dialtone, and St. Domonick. Inspired by the communal and quickly conceived nature of J. Cole’s Dreamville compilations, the number of collaborators — rappers, poets, musicians, and producers — grew to over 60, including Tulsan funk legend Charlie Wilson of the Gap Band. Likewise, the sessions were brief, limited to five days in March 2020. A deal was secured with the Motown label, which in May 2021 released Fire in Little Africa on Black Forum, a long-dormant subsidiary that in the early ’70s was behind recordings of Martin Luther King, Jr., Stokely Carmichael, and Elaine Brown, among others. The project was expanded with a documentary, podcast, and curriculum tailored to numerous educational settings. ~ Andy Kellman & Liam Martin