CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – Attendees from across generations gathered in the courtyard of the Fralin Museum of Art on Wednesday, eating drinking and talking with one another as part of “Legacy Lounge: A Sophisticated Harlem Renaissance Garden Affair.”

The event was a part of the sixth annual Soul of Cville festival, which began on Monday with a legacy walk/run to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Jefferson School.

This year, the festival’s theme is “Future Heirlooms: We Are The Ancestors,” encouraging attendees to not only consider the history they inherit, but also the history they are actively creating for future generations.

Festival organizer Khalilah Jones told Cville Right Now the event was “kind of a full circle moment.” She began reflecting on the idea around the time of the first Soul of Cville festival, which she also planned but was unable to attend due to the death of her grandmother the Wednesday before.

“It got me to thinking about legacy and just bridging the gap between generations and just having a social event where it’s a curated space specifically for the older and younger generation to come together.”

Those reflections manifested in both this year’s theme and Wednesday’s garden party. Jones put it together with help from Leontyne Peck, who has done genealogy work for over 25 years.

Peck told Cville Right Now that before working with Jones on the garden party, she thought the festival was only for younger people. But she found was there was a mix of both younger people and, as she called them, “vintage people” like herself at the party.

“We have a legacy to leave,” she said, “and history to leave, and stories to leave. And so I thought that was important.”

Jones encouraged attendees to talk with each other, particularly those they did not know, during the party in order to learn more about their unquie stories. The event also featured food, drinks, live jazz music, photo opportunities and a handmade phone booth, in which attendees were encouraged to record messages to their past or future selfs.

The event also leaned into the Harlem Renaissance theming, with attendees dressing up in the fashion of the time period and featured the work of Harlem Renaissance artist Jacob Lawrence.

Peck said the idea for the Harlem Renaissance theme came from a desire to share the music and art from that time period with young people. She said for many in her generation, their parents grew up with the music, and she herself had a direct personal connection, as musician Don Redman was her cousin.

“When you hear Harlem, I don’t care where you are in the world, it immediately, you think about New York, you think about style, you think about art, you think about history,” she said.

Ultimately, Jones said she hopes attendees walk away from this year’s festival with an understanding of not only why representation matters, but also how being intentional with how you live your life can lead to efforts like Soul of Cville.

“I probably had never even been to a festival before I started one,” she said. “So being [an] example to other people, like if you see a gap and there’s something that you would like to see and you want the young generation to have coming up, then do it.”

The rest of this year’s ticketed events have sold out, but Soul of Cville Saturday at IX Art Park, which will be from 5-10 p.m., is free and open to everyone. The event will feature about 50 vendors, a performance from 100 Proof Band and community art making.

“If you’ve never been out to Soul of Cville, this is the year to come,” Jones said.