Source: Prince Williams / Getty
Hulu has announced the upcoming release of Freaknik: The Wildest Party Never Told, a documentary from executive producers Jermaine Dupri and Uncle Luke. Many fans have expressed their concern online hoping they don’t see their parents in the upcoming documentary.
The streaming platform has secured the rights to tell one of the most legendary stories in Black culture and history – Freaknik. Variety shared an exclusive report that Hulu announced Freaknik: The Wildest Party Never Told, an original documentary chronicling how the infamous event came to prominence. It will also document its swift demise.
According to the project’s synopsis, it “recounts the rise and fall of a small Atlanta HBCU picnic that exploded into an influential street party and spotlighted ATL as a major cultural stage,” raising the question: “Can the magic of Freaknik be brought back 40 years later?”
The coveted Spring Break event was established in the mid-’80s in Atlanta as a small picnic for students of local Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). By the 1990s, the festival had surpassed its humble beginnings and evolved into what the event is remembered for today, inviting dance contests, concerts, parties, sporting events, rap sessions, job fairs, and more.
By 1998, the Associated Press reported Atlanta Committee for Black College Spring Break should no longer welcome Freaknik, citing “sexual assaults, violence against women, and public safety concerns.”
However, the desire for an event like Freaknik to return is ever-present. Many Atlanta organizations, event curators and rappers like 21 Savage have attempted to recreate the moment, but according to the OG’s there’s nothing quite like the real thing.
Executive producers for the upcoming Hulu documentary include showrunner Geraldine L. Porras and director P Frank Williams, as well as Dupri, Luther Campbell (Uncle Luke), Peter Bittenbender, Melissa Cooper for Mass Appeal, Eric Tomosunas for Swirl Films, Terry Ross, and Alex Avant. Nikki Byles and Jay Allen are producers of the project.
Here’s what fans are saying:
https://twitter.com/MikeHamiltonJr/status/1644078906037751808?s=20
Freaknik rose in popularity — and notoriety — in the 1990s and quickly gained a reputation for its salacious revelers whose exploits correlated with the derivative of the event’s name (even though “freak” is supposed to be an acronym for “fearlessly reliving & embracing Atlanta’s kulture”).
A reporter for the Chicago Tribune in 1997 called FreakNik “big trouble” that bothers neighbors and snarls traffic in a city that already has a reputation for bad gridlock.
But those in attendance begged to differ with that myopic description.
Formally known from its start as the Atlanta Black College Spring Break Party, the name FreakNik evolved from the original name of Freaknic, founded by Spelman College students in the early 1980s. But by 1988, Spelman banned any of its students from participating in what had become an excuse for a raunchy party complete with nudity and suggestive dancing in the streets.
By 1993, FreakNik was in full swing and quickly gaining a reputation for being the spring break party of the year for HBCU students. But after 1999, FreakNik took a 20-year break from the city before returning to Atlanta in 2019.
SEE ALSO:
Atlanta Still Hosting FreakNik At HBCU As Delta Variant Fuels COVID-19 Spike In Georgia
Partiers Vying To Revive FreakNik Amidst Growing Criticism
‘Cap D Coming’: Freaknik Documentary Executive Produced By Uncle Luke Coming To Hulu was originally published on globalgrind.com
