India Arie is a four-time Grammy award-winning singer, songwriter, actor, and record producer who’s sold over 10 million records worldwide, and is recognized for her advocacy of positive representation of race, self-acceptance and cultural identity in music and humanitarian and wellness initiatives. Born in Denver, Colorado, Arie attended Savannah College of Arts and Design where she studied jewelry design but after collaborating with other local artists in Atlanta would eventually give this up to focus her attention on music, eventually forming the music group Groovement. The group was very successful, but in 1999, Arie was discovered by and signed by Motown Records, and at at the age of 24 began her career as a solo artist.
Best known for writing songs about female empowerment and dismissing the societal standards of beauty, Arie’s debut album, Acoustic Soul, was released in 2001, gained commercial and critical success, and earned seven Grammy nominations, eventually being certified double platinum by the Music Industry Association of America (RIAA). In 2002, her second album, Voyage to India was certified platinum won Best R&B Album at the 2003 Grammys. In 2015 India collaborated with jazz pianist Joe Sample to create Christmas with Friends, Sample’s last album
Four Grammy awards, 23 Grammy nominations, two BET awards, four NAACP Image awards, and five Soul Train music awards later, India Arie continues to tour globally with her own unique artistry and messaging, expanding the musical horizons of her international audiences.
Tenor Zebulon Ellis is a church boy at heart who has already blazed a trail working on some pretty big stages, including twice at the White House, and a top finisher on BET’s Sunday best and with some of music’s most notable artists. He sings and he acts. He starred as Pastor Walker in Tyler Perry’s Hell Hath No Fury Like a Woman Scorned. The son of a Baptist preacher and a hardworking corporate mother started a group, while acquiring his BA in Theology at Morehouse College, that appeared in the 2003 motion picture The Fighting Temptations alongside Beyoncé, Shirley Caesar, and Cuba Gooding, Jr.
Maestro Ramon Bryant Braxton, featured on PBS and in the 2025Tribeca Film festival-screened Songs of Black Folk documentary, is the artistic director and conductor of the event’s choirs and music ensembles. A Morehouse grad with a master of music from Morgan State, Braxton’s credits include music directorships at the Abyssinian Baptist Church of Harlem, Metropolitan Baptist in Washington DC, and the Ebenezer Baptist Church of Atlanta.
Purchase tickets online through either SOBF.org or through or at The Federal Way Arts and Events Center.
