With hit projects such as Black-ish, Little, and most recently, Fantasy Football, under her belt, Marsai Martin has made a career of providing reprieve for audiences through personal and intentional storytelling. Whether through scripted performances, timely production, or viral videos foreshadowing her creative tenacity, the care with which Martin approaches the experience of her audience is palpable. The 21-year-old has continued in this legacy with her latest brainchild, Sai’s Summer Cookout (SSC).
“What we created wasn’t just a festival. It was a mirror! A place for us to gather, celebrate, grow, and even learn in real time.”
SSC is a 3-day festival hosted and curated annually with Gen Z and millennials in mind. As the festival rotates through various U.S. cities, it aims to immerse attendees in local food and culture at each stop. Marsai credits the event’s authenticity to fan feedback and suggestions on social media. “Sometimes, we’ll announce the city and someone will be like, ‘Oh, this person (artist, restaurant, etc.) needs to be there.’ So, I’m like… ‘You’re right. This person does need to be there.’ I always try to stay in tune with the audience and the people that will be there, because those are the people who are putting in time, energy, and money to go into these spaces that I'm curating.” The festival features direct audience input as the missing piece in the “fan fictional world” Martin creates.
In the Black American tradition, “cookouts” are often described as sites of intergenerational fellowship. While specific details may vary by region, the celebrations often center food, music, games, and communal grounding. They’re held for birthdays, family reunions, and everything in between. This was top of mind when the multi-hyphenate developed the idea for the eponymous festival. Described in her own words, SSC, guided by “nostalgia, community, and inspiration,” began conceptually as an intimate gathering for close friends and family in Los Angeles on Juneteenth of 2022. Although held on the West Coast, the gathering paid homage to Marsai’s roots in celebrating a holiday native to her home state of Texas. What may have appeared to be a casual, one-off event was just the beginning for what Martin imagined as a traveling national festival. Expanding incrementally each year, what has now come to be known as Sai’s Summer Cookout has made additional stops in Atlanta and Washington, D.C., further cementing the intentionality behind its execution.
In the spirit of the Black Family Reunion, which Martin cites as a direct influence in the structure of the event, it’s no surprise that each festival stop has been in the U.S. South; more specifically, cities that are home to one or more HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities). This year, Marsai brought SSC back to her home state, on the campus of Texas Southern University in Houston’s Third Ward. As with each year prior, guests experienced a curated Memorial Day Weekend featuring music, food, commerce, and immersive wellness activities specific to the host city. With Houston legend Paul Wall and more recent mainstays like Monaleo and Serena Page as featured talent alongside local Black businesses such as HTX Food Plug and The Puddery, Martin uses the festival to provide a cultural vignette of the city to attendees. Although the founder envisions the festival as continuing its growth pattern and spreading beyond its southern roots in the future, Martin reassures attendees that HBCUs and the Black communal spirit will remain central to Sai’s Summer Cookout wherever it goes. “Sai Summer Cookout is a living thing. Every year, it evolves, and every chapter tells a new story.”
In this iteration of Marsai’s world-building, she’s traded the camera for a soundstage but still wants audiences to know, “You are seen, you are heard, and we will be all right."
