Atlanta, Savannah are getting together for a show of music and spoken word — just 'Queens**t'

What started in Atlanta two years ago to feature Black women in music, art, poetry, business, and more comes to Savannah this weekend — with a local twist.

Friday night marks the first, women creatives collaboration between big A-Town and the Hostess City. Rappers, blues and gospel singers, poets, vendors and a range of entrepreneurs from both locations unite for, “Queenshit,” a celebration of all-female black talent and innovation.

The event’s genesis has a seemingly unlikely champion, Joseph Jarrett — a former history major at Savannah State, who for the past 10 years has been promoting rap and hip-hop showcases in Atlanta. He noticed a glaring trend among many shows.

There were few, if any, women.

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Jarrett, who is also poet, rapper and music producer, knew of women artists and included them in his shows. But he knew there were more, at least enough for one all-women showcase. He reached out to his network to make it happen.

“I found there were enough artists we could easily do two shows with the amount of interest I got,” reflected Jarrett. “The idea grew to include black women-owned businesses and other creatives. We now do this showcase in Atlanta once a month, and it’s become so successful, I have artists and vendors waiting to be part of it every time.”

In Atlanta, the showcase is more like a day-long festival that includes a fashion show with independent designers and local models. There’s also slam poetry, live paintings, music of course, and even financial planning sessions run by entrepreneurs and businesswomen.

The monthly showcases grew so popular that many of the women involved wanted to take it on the road as a collaborative experience with other communities.

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That’s where Savannah-born-and-raised, Kietta Atiba and Shawn Marsh enter the picture. Atiba is a private, personal chef with a hand in a couple independent businesses, while Marsh heads up a successful line of bath and body care products she’s formulated. And both women are on the organizing committee for Savannah’s newly designated annual Juneteenth celebration.

“I’ve known Joseph and we’ve been friends for over 20 years,” beamed Atiba. “I was excited when he reached out to work on this. It’s like we’re both in places in our lives where we’re just succeeding, and we can help lift others up by joining together. Working with Joseph is like teaming up with Russell Simmons to produce shows, you know what I mean?”

Marsh, who is new to event planning, hit the ground running. Together with Atiba, the organizing duo has big goals in mind for growing the Savannah brand.

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“In Atlanta, they’re having the event every month, but in Savannah, we’d have to ease into that,” considered Marsh. “I’m working on the advertising, and it looks like we could host in Savannah quarterly, then build it to a showcase every-other-month.”

For the inaugural Savannah show, vendors from both cities will be available inside Island Breeze’s back patio starting at 9 p.m., with performances kicking off an hour later. Atiba will co-host with Savannah-local MC, VP da Scholar, introducing back-and-forth an array of artists from each city. A DJ spins out the night after the final performance. In time, the collaborators hope to add a fashion show and financial planning workshops like the popular Atlanta mini-festival.

Olivia Foxworth, (a.k.a. L1bbyLoveee), is one of the artists representing Savannah. She’s been honing her chops since last fall and her release of “Loveee Me.” Now, she’s almost finished with a new project, “L1bbyLoveee U,” that’s slated to come out mid-August.

“What an honor to be included in this first show,” emphasized Foxworth. “My last live performance was April in Statesboro, and I’ve got a couple new tricks up my sleeve. I’m excited to share these new songs and orchestrate the energy of the room to bring people in to my world.”

L1bby Loveee · LOVEEE ME.

Also representing the Hostess City is spoken word artist, Jayla Lawton (a.k.a. Jay Bird), and hip-hop up-and-comer, Itz*Nobi, who surprised audiences in Daffin Park during this year’s Juneteenth celebration.

“In the future we’d like to collaborate with SCAD, since there are schools in Savannah and Atlanta, and feature some of their students for the fashion show,” said Atiba. “We envision this as the beginning of a fruitful cross pollination of art, artists, and ideas that successfully builds careers in both cities. It’s about connection and flow for women from Atlanta and Savannah, and I want to bring people who are strong to the table and feed them, so they can bring others to the table for greater exchange.”

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Savannah GA events: Queenshit at Island Breeze