Star-led festival to honor Michael Jackson and Jackson family in Gary. Brothers attending
The City of Gary will host the "2300 Jackson Street Block Party" August 29-30, honoring the Jackson family, including Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson and the Jackson 5.
Comedian and actor Chris Tucker and Grammy-winning Gary native Deniece Williams will host, while DJ Kid Capri performs at the free event that will feature food trucks, vendors and a kids play zone.
The festivities will take place from noon to 7 p.m. each day.
The August 29 celebration will focus on Michael Jackson on his birthday. On August 30, the entire Jackson family will be honored.
Though named for the childhood home of the nine musical children of Joe and Katherine Jackson, the Jacksons block party will take place at Roosevelt High School, 730 W. 25th Ave.
The now-closed school is where, in 1966, the Jackson 5 won its first talent show.
Jackie and Marlon Jackson will be honored guests at the event.
Michael Jackson's childhood home: How to visit in Gary, Indiana
Brothers Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon and Michael Jackson formed the Jackson 5 in Gary and had four consecutive number-one Billboard Hot 100 hits from their 1969 Motown debut album ("I Want You Back," "ABC," "The Love You Save," "I'll Be There").
After Jermaine left the group in 1976, their youngest brother, Randy, stepped in, and the band was renamed the Jacksons ("Blame It on the Boogie," "Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)").
The Jackson 5 was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997. Michael Jackson, who died in 2009, was inducted as a solo artist in 2001, and their sister Janet Jackson was inducted in 2019.
Sisters Rebbie and La Toya also recorded albums that yielded hit singles.
August 29
August 30
For information, visit gary.gov.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
USA Today
3 hours ago
- USA Today
ESPN analyst believes Lamar Jackson is getting closer to a legacy few will ever match
Longtime ESPN voice believes Ravens star Lamar Jackson is on the cusp of immortality They just don't make them like that anymore... Oh yeah! You remember hearing that a time or two. That's one of those nuggets you probably heard while hanging out with dad (or maybe grandad). It was a phrase meant to show appreciation for the 'good old days, when cars were better built and sofas didn't tear up because you sat on them. They don't make them like Baltimore Ravens star Lamar Jackson either. He's a walking evolution at the quarterback position. He's this generation's Randall Cunningham, a right-handed Steve Young or Michael Vick. 'Action Jackson' is special, and he can still play at a high level for several more years. That's good news for Ravens fans everywhere. But, is Lamar Jackson approaching immortality? Jackson's story is still being written, and it's too early to make determinations about when and how it ends. All we can guarantee is this. If he adds another MVP trophy and wins a Super Bowl or two, we'll be talking about Canton and his Pro Football Hall of Fame argument. Recently, the most unique and compelling of words was attached to his name: immortal. Hmmm... It sounds interesting. Don't blame us. Blame ESPN's Mike Greenberg. He's the one who brought this up. Here's what he said on the subject. "For Lamar and Josh Allen, what they're playing for is immortality. Both of them could retire tomorrow, and they'd be in the Hall of Fame. But, if either of them, and we'll use Lamar in this case because that's who we're talking about, wins a championship, all of a sudden he vaults into that place where the conversation on shows like this one are, 'Where does he belong on the list with the great quarterbacks of all time?' Two regular-season MVPs and a Super Bowl starts that conversation." It's interesting... We'll tell you that. Still, nothing says 'immortal' like having one's bust carved and having it placed in the hallowed football shrine in Canton. Jackson has a chance at having that happen. Winning a Lombardi Trophy will certainly help his argument. There are Super Bowl winners who were never enshrined. There are HOF enshrinees who never won 'the chip'. The AFC is loaded, but this season represents Jackson's best opportunity to win a ring. Let that be his and the Ravens' goal this season. Immortality can wait, even if we can make successful arguments for why he's on his way to arriving there.
New York Post
5 hours ago
- New York Post
Country star Zac Brown ‘going into debt' to fund expensive Las Vegas Sphere residency
You get what you give. Zac Brown has revealed that he is taking on debt to fund his highly anticipated four-show residency at the Las Vegas Sphere later this year. 'Just going into debt to make it happen,' the 'Knee Deep' country star, 46, told Us Weekly in an interview published Friday, July 25. Advertisement 7 Zac Brown attends the 2025 American Music Awards at Fontainebleau Las Vegas on May 26, 2025, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Getty Images 7 The Zac Brown Band performs after the NASCAR Xfinity Series The Loop 110 at Chicago Street Course on July 5, 2025. Getty Images Brown's four-concert run at the iconic Sin City venue is scheduled to kick off in December, and the first night will coincide with the release of the Zac Brown Band's next album, 'Love & Fear,' on Friday, Dec. 5. Advertisement But despite taking on debt to make the performances happen, the 'Chicken Fried' crooner is still looking forward to what he and his band have planned for their countless fans. 'It's a big moment in time,' Brown continued. 'I want to be among the names of the Grateful Dead and the Rolling Stones and the bands that take that lifelong career impact fan journey to be able to do that.' 7 Zac Brown visits 'Fox & Friends' at Fox News Channel Studios on July 24, 2025, in New York City. Getty Images 'This is our statement to try to step into that,' he added. Advertisement The Grammy-winning singer-songwriter is also ready to take on the difficulty that comes with pulling off a concert series at the 20,000-capacity Sphere. 'Whatever adversity, I'm just like, 'Okay, bring it,'' Brown said as he prepares for the shows. 'There are lots of forces that are always trying to distract you from what you're doing, and you just got to keep plowing, keep going.' 7 Zac Brown performs at The Pinnacle on April 1, 2025, in Nashville, Tennessee. Getty Images Unlike most music venues, the Las Vegas Sphere includes a visual element that immerses the audience in a multi-sensory experience. Advertisement Besides collecting images and clips to play alongside his songs, Brown revealed that he is also putting together a unique story for his fans. 'I hope they feel wonder,' he said. 'Unpredictability is something we use in our live shows a lot. I love pulling out covers that no one would ever expect us to play; that's super fun. This is the same thing visually, sonically – everything we're doing.' 7 The Zac Brown Band performs on NBC's 'Today' at Rockefeller Plaza on July 25, 2025, in New York City. Getty Images 'We have all the audio finished. We're putting the video pieces together, stitching it together. I'm finishing the story,' he continued. 'I'm telling a lot of personal things about my life that I've never shared before.' 'Everything hard that we go through as human beings always ends up making us better in some way,' Brown added. Plus, Brown teased a 'theme of redemption' throughout each of the four upcoming shows. 7 Zac Brown performs during the Zac Brown Band Special New Year's Eve Show at State Farm Arena on December 31, 2024, in Atlanta, Georgia. Getty Images 'Taking people on a journey through things that are uncomfortable and then creating that dissonance and then that tension and release is really the art of what we're doing,' he shared. Advertisement 'I haven't seen anything like what we're doing there,' Brown concluded. 'So, it's really exciting.' Shortly before opening up about his four-show residency at the Sphere, the country music icon revealed that he and his girlfriend, Kendra Scott, got engaged. 7 Kendra Scott and Zac Brown make their red carpet debut at the American Music Awards in Las Vegas, Nevada on May 26, 2025. Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency/MEGA 'We are so happy and grateful that we found each other,' Brown told People on Thursday, July 24. Advertisement The 'Old Love Song' singer's engagement to Scott, 51, comes less than two years after his contentious divorce from ex-wife Kelly Yazdi. 'I feel great,' Brown said after proposing to Scott. 'I got her good.'
Atlantic
5 hours ago
- Atlantic
Justin Bieber Is Here to Save a Summer of Strangeness
Can this really be the song of the summer? For seven weeks now, the most popular tune in the country has been Alex Warren's 'Ordinary'—a solemn ballad that has all of the warm-weather appropriateness of a fur coat. Ideally, the song of the summer is a buoyant one, giving you a beat to bob a flamingo floatie to. 'Ordinary,' instead, is made for stomping, moping, and forgetting. The top reaches of the Billboard Hot 100 have otherwise mostly been stale and flukey, filled with songs that were popular last summer (Teddy Swims's 'Lose Control'), replacement-level efforts by the streaming behemoths Drake and Morgan Wallen, and tie-ins from the Netflix cartoon show KPop Demon Hunters. Then, just last week, a welcome bit of warmth and novelty emerged at No. 2—'Daisies' by Justin Bieber, the unlikely emblem of our obviously fragile national mood. Perhaps you aren't inclined to check out new music by a formerly chirpy child star who lately has been best known for his surreal interactions with paparazzi. But earlier this month, the 31-year-old Bieber suddenly released a new album, Swag, that made headlines for being rather good. Not 'good for Bieber'; good for a modern pop release. Swag filled a void in the summer-listening landscape by meeting listeners where they so clearly seem to be—less in need of a party-fueling energy drink than a soothing slather of aloe. The album is Bieber's first since parting ways with manager Scooter Braun, the record-business kingpin who recently seemed to suffer a catastrophic collapse in support from the celebrity class. The music departs from the pert poppiness of Bieber's past to indulge the singer's well-documented fascination with hip-hop and R&B. In one interlude, the comedian Druski tells Bieber 'your soul is Black'; the assertion is cringey, but the album's music is significantly more subtle than that. Bieber never really raps. Rather, he uses his ever-yearning, creamy-soft voice to do what great rappers and R&B singers often do: find a pocket within a beat, and then let emotions be his guide. What's really fascinating about the album, though, is that it sounds like it's wrapped in gauze. The production is aqueous and rippling, rather than shiny and laminated as one might expect from Bieber. Swag is heavily influenced by the indie producer-artists Dijon (who collaborated on a few of the album's songs) and (a producer on 'Daisies'). They have risen to prominence by swirling bygone rock and pop signifiers into a comforting yet complex stew of sound. Swag 's songs similarly hit the listener with a sense of gentle intrigue, like a minor recovered memory. The instant hit 'Daisies' exemplifies the approach. Its twanging guitars and pounding drums scan as countrified classic rock, but every element seems muffled, as if emanating from an iPhone lost in a couch. The verses steadily build energy and excitement—but then disperse in a gentle puff of feeling. In a lullaby whisper, Bieber sings of pining for his girl and sticking with her through good times and bad. 'Hold on, hold on,' goes one refrain: a statement of desire for safety and stability, not passion and heat. But my personal song-of-the-summer nomination would be Swag 's opening track, 'All I Can Take.' It opens in a tenor of pure cheese, with keyboard tones that were last fashionable when Steve Winwood and Boyz II Men were soundtracking school dances. A lightly pumping beat comes to the fore, setting the stage for a parade of different-sounding Biebers to perform. In one moment, he's a panting Michael Jackson impersonator. In another, he's an electronically distorted hyperpop sprite. The song is serene, and pretty, and ever so sad—yet it's also wiggling with details that suggest there's more to the story than initially meets the ear. The lyrics thread together sex talk with hints of stresses that must be escaped; 'It's all I can take in this moment,' Bieber sings, hinting at a burnout whose cause the listener is left to imagine. Swag 's approach—downtempo yet bustling, melancholic yet awake—is on trend emotionally as much as it is musically. Though the year has brought no shortage of bright, upbeat pop albums from the likes of Lady Gaga and Kesha, the music that's sticking around has a reserved, simmering quality. The biggest Wallen song of the moment is 'What I Want,' a collaboration with the whisper-singing diva Tate McRae; it builds suspense for a full minute before any percussion enters. One rising hit, Ravyn Lenae's 'Love Me Not,' has a neo-soul arrangement that fidgets enough to keep the ear occupied without demanding active attention. A dreary technological reason probably explains why this kind of music is popular: Streaming rewards background fare more than it rewards jolting dynamism. But even looking at my own recent playlists, downtempo seems in. The best song by Addison Rae, the TikTok phenom turned pop mastermind, is 'Headphones On,' a chill-out track laden with tolling bells and jazz keyboards. I have kept returning to the album Choke Enough by Oklou, a French singer who makes electronic pop that's so skeletal and frail-seeming, you worry you're despoiling the songs merely by listening to them. Other recent highlights: the mumbled and dreamy indie rock of Alex G's Headlights, the depressive easy listening of Haim's I quit, and 'Shapeshifter,' the wintry-sounding standout from Lorde's Virgin. It's hard to avoid psychoanalyzing this season's musical offerings and concluding that the culture is suffering from malaise, or at least a hangover. After all, just a year ago we had ' Brat summer,' named for the hedonistic Charli XCX album. The songs of that summer were irrepressible: Sabrina Carpenter's sarcastic 'Espresso,' Kendrick Lamar's taunting 'Not Like Us,' and Shaboozey's thumping 'A Bar Song (Tipsy).' But this year, Charli XCX's biggest song is 'Party 4 U'—a pandemic-doldrums ballad released in 2020 that recently blew up thanks to a TikTok trend of people sharing emo stories about their lives. The track captures a bleary feeling of trying to have fun but getting pulled into melancholy. That's a feeling lots of Americans surely can relate to. Every era brings its own reasons to fret about the state of the world, but the headline-news topics of late—wars, deportations, layoffs—are upending lives in profound ways at mass scale. Swag isn't about any of that, but great pop always works to make small and personal emotions echo broad, communal ones. Bieber's highly publicized experiences navigating mental health, drug use, and physical maladies have long served up a cautionary tale about life in the internet era. In the months leading up to Swag 's release, he posted angry, inscrutable messages online and confronted reporters on the streets. Pundits have taken to asking Is he okay? The cooling, noncommittal, lightly distressed sound of Swag is an answer of sorts. Like many of us, he's doing as well as can be, given the circumstances.
