The Black Radio Experience returned to The Meritage Resort and Spa in Napa Valley over Labor Day Weekend for three unforgettable days of live music, wine, food, art, and community. Now in its fourth year, the festival is helmed by Robert Glasper, who curates an all-star lineup spanning the continuum of Black and African diasporic traditions. The Black Radio Experience is one of a kind, honoring the lineage of generations and culture — from Robert Glasper bringing his daughter on stage, to backstage trailers alive with musicians’ families. At the same time, it immerses attendees in a seamless blend of DJs, live music, visual art, food, and wine, creating a sensual, intentional experience where culture is felt as a living, interconnected whole.
Unlike most festivals, this one offered intimate performances from heavyweights like The Roots, Anthony Hamilton, Esperanza Spalding, Willow, Jazmine Sullivan, and the legendary Earth, Wind & Fire. Where else can you sip on Napa’s finest Zinfandel while rocking out to Little Brother?
Echoing the days when Richard Pryor opened for Miles Davis, Robert Glasper continues the rich tradition of musicians and comics sharing the stage at this signature event. Comedy has always been woven into the fabric of The Black Radio Experience, thanks to Dave Chappelle as its original co-host. This year’s festival hosts Sway Calloway and Heather B kept the vibes flowing, with comics Affion Crockett and Deon Cole also providing plenty of laughs.
The festival spread across three stages — the main Black Radio stage, the Roy Ayers stage, and the Wine Garden, nestled right next to the vendor village. While the main stage provided some shelter from the heat, the Roy Ayers stage kept both artists and audience bathed in the full blaze of the afternoon sun. Still, the weather was no match for the joy sparked between musicians and crowd — a palpable exchange of energy.
During his set, Lupe Fiasco grounded the audience in KRS-One’s timeless wisdom. “This thing we do right here is a mix of knowledge and movement. If you got knowledge, that means you’re hip. If you got movement, that means you can hop. Mix knowledge and movement, and you get hip hop. It’s a beautiful thing, an amazing thing, a clarifying thing, a rejuvenating thing, a resurrecting thing. If you do it correctly, it’ll save your life.”
He then launched into ‘Hip Hop Saved My Life,’ igniting the Roy Ayers stage with magnetic stagecraft, giving fans the rare thrill of seeing a stadium-worthy superstar in an intimate outdoor setting.
The Roy Ayers stage delivered some of the festival’s most memorable moments, with standout performances from Terrace Martin featuring Kenyon Dixon, Braxton Cook, Little Brother, and The Soul Rebels featuring Oakland’s own Goapele and Warren G. Infinity Song, a soft-rock sibling band formed in New York City, mesmerized the crowd as Israel and Momo Boyd traded blazing guitar leads and harmonized riffs, building to an electrifying crescendo.
The Black Radio Experience offers more than just music — this year’s food and wine experiences were as nuanced as song notes. Guests enjoyed two exquisitely curated afternoons in The Estate Cave, a 3,892-square-foot wine cellar crowned with a dramatic barrel ceiling and bathed in the warm glow of chandeliers and wall sconces. The first event featured cuisine by Vallejo-native Chef Jammir Gray, who prepared each dish with care — from gumbo arancini with andouille aioli, to braised oxtail cappellacci with black garlic butter, pole beans, and shallot crumble. Each course was paired with a Brown Estate wine selected by one of the world’s four Black Master Sommeliers, Chris Gaither. Established in 1996, the family-owned Brown Estate was Napa Valley's first Black-owned winery. Pianist and composer James Francies, who opened this year’s festival, provided a live soundtrack for every bite, adding another layer of depth and meaning to the experience.
The second experience, aptly titled ‘The Sweet Sound of Legacy,’ offered a unique five-course dessert journey, featuring iconic Black Southern sweets reimagined with global flavors by Chef Andra Dynese Harris and co-hosted by gospel powerhouse Kim Burrell. Chef Andra opened the menu with a sweet potato miso tart with toasted meringue, pecan crust, and brown butter caramel, culminating in a show-stopping cornbread strawberry shortcake with strawberry mousse, vanilla chantilly, and cornbread sponge. As the creator and instructor of Bougie Eats Academy, Chef Andra brings both expertise and heart to her craft. She also serves as Senior Director of Campus Dining and Hospitality for Los Angeles Room and Board, an organization dedicated to ending youth and student homelessness and hunger. Both Estate Cave experiences celebrated more than flavor, highlighting the history, values, and legacy embedded in each creation.
On opening day, Glasper wore a shirt that read ‘Be the truth not the trend’ — a phrase that perfectly captures the festival’s ethos. In a moment of compounding crises, where life feels increasingly precarious and fractured, fellowship and shared joy become a necessary medicine. And here, the music isn’t an escape from reality, it’s part of its very architecture. From Talib Kweli declaring ‘Free Palestine’ during Big Daddy Kane’s set to Willow offering a moving Heart Sutra chant, the artists reflected the times. Esperanza Spalding delivered a striking live rendition of ‘Dancing the Animal,’ a meditation on the tyranny of the nefarious algorithm and a plea to “guard the animal in you / no pride, no greed, no sin (in you) / guard the animal, God’s the animal in you.”
On closing night, poet J. Ivy’s words reverberated through the crowd: “They love to hate your skin tone, treat you like an immigrant when you been home.” But fittingly, the last word went to the comics, reminding us that the festival’s final note wasn’t merely one of struggle, but one of collective laughter. A note of boundless, eternal love — a love supreme.