Lots to tell you guys about, but I’ll keep to one topic for now: The Festival of the New Black Imagination. First, some of you had marked this past Saturday, October 20 in your calendars as the date for the 2012 event. Obviously, that didn’t happen. Good news, though, is that we’re pushing the Festival to May of 2013, and we’ll settle on a solid date early in the new year.
In the place of the Festival, I thought we’d start to develop the workshop and labs aspect of the Festival. That is, one of the things I’ve always envisioned for the Festival is that it would be a space in which to help develop the next generation of creators and curators. After all, how better to learn than to learn from top practitioners in a specific area?
So we’re excited to kick off our workshop series with three people who exemplify excellence in their creative endeavors:
- Social media For Artists with Tayari Jones, bestselling author of Silver Sparrow, The Untelling and Leaving Atlanta
- Watching Movies With Armond White, former chairman of the New York Film Critics Circle and a member of the National Society of Film Critics
- Songwriting with Nona Hendryx, Grammy-nominated music icon
Stay tuned as we add additional workshops on other topics starting in the new year, all of which will lead up to the 2013 Festival in May.
The important thing to know is that we’re using this as a model for fundraising. No corporate sponsors have committed yet. Rather than wait for money to magically fall out of the sky, I thought it better to take some action and create some value. So consider taking a course or two. Also, please spread the word. As you can see, there are some incredible folks giving of their time to lead these sessions.
Last thing: All of these workshops will have limited seats available. In fact, there are only 14 slots available for Nona’s session, whereas there will be approximately 20 for each of the others. Book your space sooner rather than later.
Click on the image above to get to the Festival site for more detailed information.
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