Durham musician Jooselord is turning grief into a citywide celebration this fall. All Onyx World, a free festival spread across eight downtown Durham venues, will fill the city with 33 performers on Friday, October 30, honoring his son Onyx, who died of brain cancer at age 5.
The festival takes its name and purpose directly from Onyx Williams, whose short life drew an outpouring of support across the Triangle before his death. As reported by Axios, Jooselord said his son “was everything” he had, and that everything he does going forward will carry his son’s name attached to it. The lineup will be announced Thursday, October 1, featuring North Carolina artists spread across venues including The Fruit, Durham Central Park, Motorco Music Hall, Pinhook, Rubies, Bull McCabe’s, Northstar Church of the Arts, and Boom Club.
A Festival Built on Overlapping Shows, Not Ticket Sales
Jooselord, whose real name is Raheem Williams, described the event’s design to Axios as resembling “a night at Hopscotch,” with overlapping shows scattered across multiple clubs rather than a single stage. The comparison is intentional: Hopscotch Music Festival, according to Rave Bonfire, operates as a multi-venue event in downtown Raleigh with daytime outdoor stages and night shows dispersed across independent music clubs, and Jooselord modeled his Durham festival on that decentralized layout.
Admission is free, with participating venues donating their time and space to make it happen. Jooselord called the festival “homegrown on purpose,” per the same Axios report, and stressed that despite the emotional stakes, All Onyx World is not structured as a fundraiser. Known locally as the moshpit messiah, Jooselord has said his shows are built around emotion and feeling, and he frames this one as a celebration and a chance for the community to be together rather than a solicitation for donations.
From Diagnosis to a Community-Wide Rally
Onyx’s illness began with an unexpected seizure in November 2024, when he was three years old. Surgeons removed a brain tumor, and doctors diagnosed him on December 5, 2024, two days after his fourth birthday, with a high-grade glioma, according to CLTure. The American Brain Tumor Association has reported a five-year overall survival rate below 20 percent and a median overall survival under two years for children diagnosed outside early infancy…