From a cookout to a cook-in.
Heavy rain swept through Houston Sunday afternoon, prompting actress and producer Marsai Martin to both delay and move her third annual Sai Summer Cookout indoors at Texas Southern University on Labor Day weekend. Although many were disappointed by the last-minute pivot, organizers, attendees, vendors, and celebrity guests refused to let the weather dampen the spirit and family-friendly vibes that come with a classic cookout.
“Even though things have been switched, we will make sure everything is according to plan as what we practiced,” Martin said to the audience when the event started shortly before 7:30 p.m.
The annual event launched in 2023 in Atlanta, followed by Washington D.C. last summer, and is designed to foster community and provide a safe place for historically Black college and university students and alumni to be themselves ⸺ free, empowered, and unapologetically authentic. This year marked the annual event’s debut on the campus of an HBCU, raising expectations for an epic year.
“Only because of the weather, I would say that D.C. was better, but I know if we had the ample time to prepare for the weather, I feel like this would have blew out the park,” said TikTok food critic sensation, Keith Lee, to ESSENCE. “But it was still amazing.”
When TSU junior Kadynn Alexander first saw the campus email promoting it this spring, she rallied her crew to get tickets, not giving it much thought —or considering its historic significance— knowing Martin, a Dallas-native, was returning to her home state.
“I was thinking she came to Texas, she wanted to be with her people, and she chose Texas Southern University for it,” she said. “But knowing we’re the first HBCU that she chose is really cool.” While Alexander had a great time at the event, she admitted she wished she had been able to experience it outside on the football field.
Martin said she knew the first year that she was going to bring an experience to Texas. But why host it at TSU in Houston specifically?
When Martin thinks of Houston, it reminds her of family, like her first solo flight as a young girl visiting her grandmother, according to the Black-ish star. When she thinks of HBCUs, the first one that comes to mind is TSU, the alma mater of her favorite twin cousins.
“Houston was always a second home to me, so I knew that was going to be the basis of where I wanted to go,” Martin said in an interview with ESSENCE. “I’ll go to Dallas eventually. … I do have something very, very special for them; they just have to play the long game with me.”
On Sunday evening, attendees explored and shopped at more than 50 Black-owned businesses in the vendor village, and members of Black sororities and fraternities strolled, bringing energy and pride in between performances from Houston artists MonaLeo and legend Paul Wall. London-born R&B artist Kwn, who had been slated to perform, made an appearance to greet fans but ultimately did not take the stage. In a statement later shared on Instagram, she explained that the inclement weather had damaged the equipment necessary for her performance.
Instead of field games, guests competed in a song lyric-guessing game, taking home prizes from Bratz doll collectibles to school supplies. The event also featured appearances from Wild ‘N Out comedian and content creator, Zoie “GodDamnZo” Fenty, Love Island season 6 winner, Serena Page, TV host and media personality, Scott Evans, and Keith Lee, who curated the food court experience with some of his Houston favorites: The Puddery, Cool Runnings, Tacos Doña Lena, and HTX Food Plug.
“I mainly picked the ones that I go to when I come to Houston,” said Lee, who recently moved to Dallas.
“The other ones that we picked were either the most recommended or the ones that we heard nonstop about. But it means everything for me to be here.
I love Marsai. That’s family to me. Her and her mama was one of the first people to ever have a real conversation with us when everything first started for us.”
Lee shared that he first reached out to Martin nearly four years ago, after she gave him a public shoutout during a red carpet interview while imitating his signature hand gesture from his viral videos. Reflecting on that moment, he expressed gratitude for being invited to participate in the cookout.
“I come from a big family,” he said to ESSENCE. “I’m born and raised in Detroit in Michigan, in the Midwest in general, we do family get-togethers real big. So for me, this means like everything, just to be a part of it, to be involved, to see all the people that look like us.”
Zoie Fenty said that although he grew up in Atlanta, he went to predominantly white schools for high school and college. However, he said if he could do it all over again, he’d attend an HBCU.
It’s why he loves it when HBCUs book him to host events like homecoming.
“It’s nothing like going to an HBCU, being around other smart, educated Black people that you just like, ‘Dang, it’s actually cool to be smart and go to school,’” Fenty said.
“It’s important because the world tries to silence Black people, and we have so much power. I just want the black kids to know that, like, they want you to think that you’re a setback or you’re the minority. We’re really not. Our Black dollars matter. Our Black votes matter, Black people matter, and coming to events like this just shows you that Black is beautiful, Black is powerful. … I don’t care how much you try to take away DEI and control, baby, you are you, and can’t nobody take your Black away. Your Black is power. Period.”
In a landscape dominated by legacy festivals like Lollapalooza and Coachella, Martin dared to dream differently. At just 14 years old, she began sketching out a vision in her journals—not for another sprawling mega-event, but for something more personal. Her goal: to curate an intimate, elevated, and exclusive cookout that had music performances but felt less like a concert and more like a cultural reunion.
One that evoked the nostalgic warmth of a timeless cookout — a party with great food, music, games, line dancing, and wisdom and stories passed down from elders. It mirrored the weekend cookouts she had with extended family every weekend in Dallas until her family moved to Los Angeles in 2013 to pursue her acting career.
“The thing I was really keen on was safety and protection,” Martin said.
“I think that is so special and crucial during this time, especially for HBCUs and Black women, when we are constantly being attacked and the things that we have created for ourselves have been constantly pulled away. . …You feel good, you feel comfortable, you don’t feel nervous and stuck to your phone, and not being able to be open to people around you.”
Another thing Martin was adamant about was making the cookout HBCU-centered, a commitment she said was sparked after touring Spelman College as a prospective student roughly three years ago.
“I love HBCUs. I love how deeply rooted it goes and how far the history goes with HBCUs,” Martin said. “The music, the events, and how generational it is, I’ve always been about not only generational wealth, but celebrating the people that came before you. And I think HBCUs do that so well.”
But when she realized that her busy schedule would make it difficult to do both, she decided to celebrate HBCUs and pay it forward in a way that felt more impactful.
“I’ve always been a gift giver,” Martin said, “and I wanted the cookout to be a gift to HBCU students around the country.”
Despite the rain, many were thankful for that gift.