Our Crowdfunding Groups
WordSoundLife.org (the social network for media learning) is a student-run organization registered at the University of California at Berkeley that presents innovative training programs in media, expression and arts. Our school & community programs create opportunities for youth to become creative and self-directed leaders by making connections with people and resources in the Word.Sound.Life. global community. The crowdfunding campaign goal is to raise $6,000 to launch the Music Is Healing Us Bay Area youth initiative.
The Music Is Healing Us crowd-funding campaign aims to mobilize opportunities for wellness to youth and adults in the Bay Area through music camps and media events.
We want to invite you to join our growing community of youth, artists, educators, musicians, media-makers and stage performers committed to building and sharing a model for deep educational changes in our society. The Music Is Healing campaign is an ongoing movement toward awakening the potential latent within each individual to effect social change through creativity and storytelling. Funding this campaign helps to support this movement through the publication of a multimedia wellness zine and the creation of a creativity camp.
We need your help and donations to fully establish the vision for the camp by securing the required resources needed to thrive and ensure the longevity and sustainability of our efforts for future generations to come.
JOIN THE 'MUSIC IS HEALING US' MOVEMENT
We are launching this campaign to have available all of the resources necessary for the fulfillment of our mission and vision to build sustainable community through music and media camps, festivals and retreats. This includes building lasting reciprocal connections between youth leaders and artist-mentors, as well as securing funds to mobilize the movement. We offer scholarships to sponsor individual youth and families in-need, and provide stipends for college student mentors.
YOUTH LEADERS
Our campaign goal is to sponsor our 2017 inaugural cohort of teens from the Bay Area.
PROJECT TEAM
Pierre is a poet, musician and the co-founder of Word. Sound. Life. He earned a Masters in Humanities from the University of Chicago and a Masters in Information Management and Systems from UC Berkeley. Pierre is currently a PhD Candidate at the Graduate School of Education (Literacy, Language & Culture Program).
Jesse is an innovative artist and creative professional with an entrepreneurial spirit, project management skills and marketing expertise. He utilizes music, digital media and publishing to create and distribute entertainment content across multiple platforms while establishing brand identity and elevating brand recognition. He holds a BA from the University of Chicago in African and African American Studies and a Master's in Entertainment Industry Management from Carnegie Mellon University. Currently, Jesse is a writer, producer and artist with the Afromerican Project, a music and media outlet on the web he co-founded in 2006.
Fithawee studies sociology at the University of California, Berkeley where he is completing his PhD. He teaches and conducts research on issue of race and politics in urban education. Fithawee is currently completing a historical study of the Civil Rights Movement and the black struggle for educational justice in Chicago, Illinois.
Rashida is the co-founder of Employtech, a project-based internship incubation center focusing on hands-on workforce training for Kenyan youth. This training program is designed to complement students’ current institution’s curriculum, while assisting them in sharpening their business acumen and creating pathways to greater job and entrepreneurship opportunities.
Quame is a musical recording artist and has published four albums through longstanding independent record companies. His first release entitled Don't Call Me John on ABB Records is considered an underground classic in many Hiphop circles. His album entitled Invisible Man was nominated for "Hiphop Album of the Year" on several distinguished websites in 2009. is the program coordinator for the Interdisciplinary Resources for Transfer Students Program in the Student Learning Center, a lecturer in the Department of African American Studies and the faculty advisor of Word.Sound.Life.
Music Is Healing Ensemble.
MORE WAYS TO GET INVOLVED!
We invite our extended community of youth, parents, colleagues, families and friends aligned with our vision to support the Music is Healing Us project and tour. There are many more exciting ways you can participate, by:
- joining our Music is Healing calendar and stay tuned on upcoming events, classes and performances
- making connections on our Facebook and Twitter page and telling others in your communities and social networks about our work!
- registering yourself, a child or teen to take part in the summer camp or attend our Ensemble rehearsals
- submitting your media for opportunities to be featured in the mixtape (interviews, poems, music, art etc...)!
WHO WE ARE AND WHAT WE DO
Word. Sound. Life. is a community media learning organization founded in Chicago in 2006 that provides arts and media learning opportunities for children (and adults) to cultivate their creative and artistic expression. The iCamp is our flagship program -- a unique intensive production boot camp intended to equip youth with the fundamental skills to become creative, competent & collaborative media producers. By giving all of our teen participants (ages 13-19) opportunities to work alongside professionals (artists, performers and media-makers) iCamp provides a fun, collaborative and productive environment to hone critical social and literacy skills.
WHY FUND US
As a registered student organization, Word.Sound.Life. can reserve rooms and spaces at UC Berkeley for events and workshops, which ultimately saves us hundreds of dollars in rental costs. For this reason, your donations go towards the costs of hosting the camp, publishing the zine and stipends for apprentices/mentors.
BUDGET BREAKDOWN
Our extended goal is $10,000 to print more copies of the youth publication and acquire a used bus or van that we will convert into a mobile recording booth to connect with more community partners and schools and amplify the voices and stories of youth from Oakland and Chicago.
For more reasons as to why you should fund the Music Is Healing Us project, please consider the following:
Our organization is a registered student organization at UC Berkeley and thus we are fiscally sponsored by the ASUC (Association of Students of the University of California), a 501c3 not-for-profit, which means your donations are tax-deductible
Our tuition is within reach of most socio-economic segments, so your donations can actually sponsor a teen to learn
We recruit the very best of college talent as camp mentors and thereby provide extra income for undergraduate and graduate students, (thanks to your contributions!)
Our model is supported by the latest research in digital media learning and urban education
Our model is based on 10 years of operational success as attested to by the diversity of events, workshops, conferences, artist residencies, performances, broadcasts and more that we've held
We honor human diversity in the areas of sex, gender, race, color, national, and ethnic origin and integrate a restorative justice approach in our curriculum, therefore we are a safe zone
We emphasize what matters most for learning--creativity and knowledge of oneself
We create open spaces of cultural production under the Banner of Peace (Roerich Pact).
All work licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
We'll include YOUR name in our social media updates as well as our monthly newsletter sent to all our youth, mentors, parents and partners. Thank You!
We'll send you a personalized mix of our official "Making Connectionz" podcast (featuring interviews, reflections, poems and more from the MIHU collective) , as well as include an autographed poster signed by camp youth and feature you in the credits of the podcast.
We'll offer you a copy of our Wellness Zine publication featuring interviews, reflections, poems and more from the MIHU collective, and include a personalized download mix of the "Making Connectionz" podcast, as well as feature you in the credits of both the podcast & zine.
We'll send you an autographed photo of the Bay Area 2017 MIHU camp signed by the youth, as well as offer you a non-speaking cameo role and feature you in the credits for our music video! Plus, you'll receive all of the rewards from above.
We'll invite you to join the camp youth for one day during the summer (in person or via Skype or Google Video) and offer you an all-access VIP pass to our final celebration. Plus, you'll receive all of the rewards above and we'll include your name on the list of donors on our official t-shirt.
We'll invite you to an intimate meet & greet reception in Berkeley with the team, camp youth and families, plus we'll include your name as part of the sponsors on our official Music Is Healing promotional banner. You'll also receive all of the rewards above.
We'll offer you the opportunity to join the camp for our end-of-summer 2-day mini-festival/nature retreat in Mt Shasta, CA. Plus you'll receive all of the rewards from above.
