Durham artist XOXOK performs at Carrboro's final Black History Month concert

The Town of Carrboro concluded its celebrations for Black History Month on Sunday afternoon with sing-alongs and stripped-down spins on soul classics from the artist XOXOK. 

“It’s a beautiful day outside,” Keenan Jenkins said to open his set. “You could have been at any number of places today, but you are here with us and we really appreciate that.”

XOXOK is the atmospheric soul project of Keenan Jenkins, a UNC alum now based in Durham. His original music is influenced by both contemporary and classic R&B, with Sunday’s set at the Carrboro Century Center spanning several decades of crowd-pleasers ranging from Bill Withers to Beyoncé. 

Michelle Blume, recreation supervisor for the Town’s recreation, parks and cultural resources department, recruited Jenkins to perform the morning of the concert after the scheduled saxophonist canceled due to illness.

Blume also said the Town’s Black History Month concert series, now in its third annual installment, aims to spotlight Triangle musicians and introduce their work to the Carrboro community.

“We try to bring in different artists of different genres to provide music for the Town to come out and enjoy on a Sunday afternoon,” she said.

Previous concert series performers included the United Strings of Color, an all-Black classical ensemble from Cary, and the Chrishawn Darby Quartet, a jazz band formed at North Carolina Central University. 

Jenkins, who completed a doctorate in psychology at UNC in 2016, typically plays with the backing of a three-person band. However, on Sunday, his vocals and guitar were the main event. He serenaded a nearly-full reception hall with smooth melodies and personalized renditions of Aaliyah’s “Are You That Somebody” and Beyoncé’s “Love On Top.” 

Jenkins’s selections were all covers from Black artists, although his second-to-last song was an XOXOK original titled “Worthy.”

Audience members clapped and sang along with Jenkins throughout his set, especially to Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together” and the two Bill Withers songs that ended the set. Jenkins also asked the crowd who their favorite Black artists were and played covers of the most common responses. 

Attendees included young families, veterans and Town staff. Organizers set up a table with Black History Month stickers, wristbands and other items. The Durham chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha, a Black fraternity, distributed pamphlets about youth mentorship programs and voter registration initiatives. 

Concertgoer Larry Chadbourne said he and his friend decided to come out and listen to XOXOK because he wanted to support the Town’s efforts to honor Black History Month, and because the concert was free. 

“There’s a lot of music around here — some of it’s free, which is nice; we had the choice today of going to a Baroque concert in Chapel Hill, which we’ve done before, which costs, ” he said. “But we decided, ‘Let’s go to this and see what it’s like,’ — and also you know, as part of Black History Month, to honor that because right now, there are people saying, ‘We don’t want to honor all the diversity in the world,’ so we’re here.” 

Charles Alston, a Carrboro native who served for 29 years in the military, also attended the event. He and his friend chose to attend Sunday’s event as part of an effort to attend Black History Month programming throughout February. Alston describes himself as a music lover, and he said he enjoyed the concert’s small-scale, locally-oriented nature. 

“It was a nice selection for him to give to an audience like this,” Alston said.

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