Rise and Remember Festival
Annual remembrance gatherings at George Floyd Square, 38th Street and Chicago Avenue, Minneapolis
George Floyd Square — Minneapolis, MN
Rise and Remember is an annual festival held at George Floyd Square, the intersection of 38th Street and Chicago Avenue in South Minneapolis where George Floyd was murdered by a Minneapolis police officer on May 25, 2020. Organized by the George Floyd Global Memorial and allied community groups, the event marks each anniversary of his death with music, speakers, vendors, film screenings, and candlelight vigils.
The first gathering, in 2021, drew a large crowd to the intersection one year after Floyd's murder, with his aunt Angela Harrelson addressing attendees, rapper Common and the gospel ensemble Sounds of Blackness performing from a stage set up at the square, and murals being painted along the perimeter. By that point the intersection had already been held as an autonomous community space for a full year, its memorials and barricades maintained by residents who refused to allow it to return to ordinary traffic.
Each subsequent anniversary has added its own character while the underlying demands for justice remained unresolved. The second festival included a screening of the documentary The People's Way and performances by a choir and orchestra. The third was capped by hip-hop artist Chubb Rock. The Minnesota Orchestra performed a commissioned piece called Brea(d)th at the Say Their Names Cemetery on the third anniversary. By the fifth anniversary, the organization Memorialize The Movement displayed boards salvaged from boarded-up storefronts during the 2020 uprising at nearby Phelps Park, preserving them as historical artifacts. The sixth festival featured a Prince tribute performed by the St. Paul and Minneapolis Funk All Stars, drawing members of The Revolution, The Family, and the New Power Generation to the square.
George Floyd Square itself remains a community-maintained memorial. The intersection has been formally designated George Perry Floyd Square, and the Say Their Names Cemetery nearby continues to honor victims of police violence with rows of marked memorials that are tended and revisited each May.
