Six Lanes brings new options to Houston’s Black community.
Before everything came undone because of a pandemic, Briana Johnson and Avery Harper Williams planned to bring a new Juneteenth celebration to Houston.
On the surface, their idea was like others: live musical accompaniment to a historic day, a celebration of emancipation to be attended by a few thousand people in the city. Beneath the surface, their idea was like no other. Six Lanes Entertainment — the new media company started by Johnson and Williams — seeks to put on events with an emphasis on the Black community in Houston. But their goal isn’t to start a tentpole music festival, an annual event that finds organizers attempting to annually increase attendance and revenue. Instead, they envision Six Lanes claiming territory between entertainment and altruism.
“Coronavirus came and we cried about it some,” Johnson says. “But what it did was make us more serious about what we were doing. The things we cared about didn’t change when the coronavirus came. Of course, then we got sick …”
Five of seven Six Lanes staffers fell ill, which sunk a livestream they planned in lieu of an in-person Juneteenth show. So now Six Lanes launches publicly this Saturday with Electronic Highway, a virtual event featuring performances by Mitch Mars, Mook Ali, DesmoTheCrooked, KingRico, Esco Llaiya and a screening of “Reflections on Witness (2019),” a film directed by Solange Knowles and Cary Fagan. The event will air on Six Lanes’ site Saturday before becoming available to those who use Roku streaming devices.
While Six Lanes’ launch didn’t go as planned, its mission remains the same. Johnson and Williams hold down 9-to-5 jobs. They run Six Lanes to assist those needing help. Their goals are to increase visibility and consumer traffic for Blackowned businesses, and to create opportunities through scholarships for young Black students headed to college.
Johnson and Williams met at Howard University, where they were both political science majors. Both moved to Houston for work: She started at Apple, he served as a paralegal. But they decided they could run a company outside of their day to day.
Johnson says she had a mental hurdle to clear first: that the student debt she accrued at Howard wasn’t a barrier to doing good works.
“I thought I had to get rich to help people,” she says. “But if I waited until I was as rich as I wanted to be, I might be waiting forever. The time is now, no excuses. We want to be successful, but this isn’t about selling anything.”
While they studied in Washington, D.C., both Johnson and Williams landed in Houston, a place where both had spent time. Williams grew up here. Johnson was in a military family that bounced around Texas.
Once settled here, the two knew they were immersed in a vibrant art and entertainment culture. They decided to divert some of its energy away from the machinery that turns entertainment into profit. Unlike those who mine the legacy of Robert Davis Jr., the legendary musician known as DJ Screw, without regard for his estate, they reached out to his siblings for permission to use his name and likeness. Six Lanes now offers a scholarship fund in his name.
“We’re passionate about music,” Johnson says. “But we’re also passionate about lifting up the Black community.”
Six Lanes hopes to raise money from its events, not to grow a festival brand but to grow awareness about Black businesses and culture. The two recently worked with the mall staple Hot Topic. They originally courted donations and ended up engaged in discussions to diversify the store’s offerings to include products made by Black-owned businesses.
“Neither of us thinks that being a good person or an altruistic person is a compartmentalized experience,” Johnson says. “You don’t have to be a nun to be altruistic. Rappers and people who listen to rap all day still can want to find a way to get lunches to kids. So we’re trying to get rid of that stigma.”
Williams adds, “We want to show people there are different ways to help somebody out. You can donate time, money, mentorship … We’ll take backpacks and preprepared lunches and money. But we’d also like to change the way people do business.”