On Saturday, August 29, the day Michael Jackson was 68, Spike Lee will organise a new edition of BK Loves MJ in Brooklyn, the great free party that has been dedicated to the music of the singer for many years. It will be held in Fort Greene Park, from 12 to 19, with DJ Spinna to the console and support of Jordan Brand. The event is free and open to the public, as the Fort Greene Park Conservancy calendar confirms.
BK Loves MJ practically exists since Jackson’s death. The first edition was organized by Lee on August 29, 2009, just two months after the singer’s death on June 25. He turned to Prospect Park and was born as a collective birthday party: DJ Spinna played Jackson’s records and thousands of people danced in the park. The following year the event was repeated and, according to an estimate reported at the time by the Village Voice, reached about 50 thousand people.
Spike Lee’s relationship with Michael Jackson goes a long way ahead of the party. In 1996 Lee directed both videos of “They Don’t Care About Us”, including the one shot in the streets of Salvador de Bahia and in the favela of Santa Marta, Brazil. After Jackson’s death he also made the video of “This Is It” and in 2012 he directed Bad 25, the documentary dedicated to the twenty-five years of the album Bad and built using recordings, tests and materials from the singer’s archives. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has reconstructed these collaborations on the occasion of a retrospective dedicated to the director.
BK Loves MJ also changed shape and address. After the first editions at Prospect Park, the festival stopped for a few years: that of 2011 was canceled for the arrival of hurricane Irene, that of 2012 did not hold and in 2013 one was not organized. He returned in 2014 to the Restoration Plaza in Bedford-Stuyvesant and the following year was moved to Stuyvesant Avenue, in the stretch that had just been co-initiated “Do The Right Thing Way”, where Lee had turned a good part of Fa’ the right thing.
Over the years the formula has remained quite simple. In the center there is mainly DJ Spinna, producer and DJ of Brooklyn who for decades organizes evenings dedicated to soul, funk and R&B music and who participates in BK Loves MJ since the first edition. Not only does Jackson’s best known singles play: in his sets they find space the Jackson 5, the solo albums, remixes, lesser known versions and other songs related to the same music scene. In 2023 a version of the festival dedicated to Prince also drew more than 30,000 people to Fort Greene Park, according to BRIC, one of Brooklyn’s leading cultural organizations.
This year’s edition also arrives at a time when Michael Jackson has returned very present in popular culture. In April Michael came out, the biopic directed by Antoine Fuqua and portrayed by Jaafar Jackson, the singer’s nephew. The film has cashed more than a billion dollars in the world, becoming the biggest recessed biopic ever. It has also been discussed for the way Jackson’s life recounts: the first film basically stops at Bad’s time in 1988, before the years when the charges of sexual abuse against the singer emerged, and a second chapter is already in development. Lionsgate indicates April 24, 2026 as the film’s release date, while Box Office Mojo’s data shows just over $1,016 billion worldwide cash.
Saturday, however, the point of BK Loves MJ will be what has always been: listening to Jackson’s records and dancing. The party will start at 12 o’clock and end at 7 o’clock in Fort Greene Park, between DeKalb Avenue and Washington Park. To get there, Fort Greene Park Conservancy recommends C to Lafayette Avenue, G to Fulton Street, B, Q and R to DeKalb Avenue or Lines 2, 3, 4, 5, B, D, N, Q and R to Atlantic Avenue–Barclays Center.
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