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The CSRA 's free weekly - featuring entertainment, arts, news, sports, and political commentary.TRANSCRIPT
NEWS • COMMENTARY ARTS ENTERTAINMENT
Newspaper
The CSRA’s
FREEWEEKLYUrban WPro
JANUARY 10 - 16, 2013
VOL.2 NO.18
vPersonal and Business Income Tax Preparation
vFees start at $55.00
vIRS & State Problem Resolution
vIRS & State Audit Representation
vLevy/Lien/Garnishment Release
vOffers-In-Compromise And More
The Wise Choice2664 Tobacco Rd., Ste A,Hephzibah, GA 30815www.taxwize.net
“Pride and Passion: The African-American Baseball Experience”
Feds halt attempt to move electionsNew hope for expanded bus service
BuildingCommunity
The CSRA’s FREE WEEKLYNewspaperVOL.2 NO.18eekly
Georgia Regents University’s Reese Library will host the exhibit on January 18, 2013
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PublisherBen Hasan
706-394-9411
Managing EditorFrederick Benjamin Sr.
706-836-2018
UrbanProWeekly LLC
Mailing Address:3529 Monte Carlo DriveAugusta, Georgia 30906
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Frails & Wilson is pleased to announce that attorney Aimee Pickett Sanders has joined the Firm as an Associate. Ms. Sanders is a graduate of the University of Georgia, School of Law. She served as a federal law clerk and an attorney for an international law firm in Atlanta, GA; she was also affiliated with a national law firm in Columbia, SC.
During law school, Ms. Sanders trav-eled to Brussels, Belgium and became certified in European Union law; thereafter, she stayed and interned with an international law firm. She was also honored to be named Southern Bankruptcy Leadership Institute’s Distinguished Law Student and achieved significant success in the advocacy arena, garnering a best brief award and coaching a moot court team to a regional championship.
Ms. Sanders was recently married to, Kester Sanders, who is a native of Augusta, GA. Among other volunteer and civic activities, Ms. Sanders is an active member of The Junior League of Augusta and the Augusta Chapter of the Georgia Association of Black Women Attorneys. She has also been selected to participate in the YLD Leadership Academy, Class of 2013.
Ms. Sanders engages in general practice with an emphasis on domes-tic litigation, personal injury and busi-ness law. Frails & Wilson is located at 211 Pleasant Home Rd., Suite A-1, Augusta, GA 30907; 706-855-6715; Fax 706-855-7631.
Aimee Sanders
Aimee Sanders joins Frails & Wilson Law Firm
Augusta Mini Theatre Presents
The Parents of Tabatha Tutt vs. D.J. Smoke
AUGUSTAIncoming freshman to Augusta
State University who graduate in four years will become the inaugural class the new Georgia Regents University.
The consolidation of Augusta State and Georgia Health Sciences univer-sities is official following Monday’s approval of a resolution by the University System of Georgia Board of Regents to form Georgia Regents University.
“Today marks an important mile-stone for Georgia Regents University,” said GRU President Ricardo Azziz, who today was appointed to lead the consolidated university. “I am thank-ful for the trust the regents have placed in us and the partnership, sup-port and active engagement exhibited by our faculty, staff, students, alumni, volunteers and friends throughout this consolidation process.”
Following approval of a recommen-dation to consolidate the two univer-
sities at its January 2012 meeting, the regents approved the new university’s mission statement in May and the name Georgia Regents University in August.
The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, a regional accrediting body for higher education institu-tions, affirmed the regents’ recom-mendation when it voted to approve the consolidation at its annual meet-ing in December.
The new university includes nine colleges, nearly 10,000 students, more than 650 acres of campus, nearly 150 buildings, more than 1,000 full-time faculty, approximately 5,600 staff, an integrated health system and a grow-ing intercollegiate athletics program. It’s economic impact will be nearly $1.3 billion. The inaugural class of GRU will enroll in this fall.
For more information, visit www.gru.edu.
AUGUSTAAugusta Mini Theatre, Inc.
Community Arts and Life Skills School will present “The Parents of Tabatha Tutt vs. D.J. Smoke” starting January 18 – February 18, 2012 with perfor-mances at 3:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.
The performance will take place at the Judith Simon Drama Studio locat-ed inside the Augusta Mini Theatre, Inc. Admission for adults is $12, children and students, $10 and $8 for youth groups/organizations with ten or more.
“The Parents of Tabatha Tutt vs. D.J. Smoke” is a one-act play that asks, who is responsible for raising children: Parents or such outside forces as edit-ed and unedited songs played on the
radio and underground? Tutt’s parents challenges and sues a local D.J., whom they blame for their daughter’s poor choices.
“This play takes a look into the cur-rent issues youth and parents face with the negative imagery and lyrical con-tent widely available to them via televi-sion and radio,” said Tyrone J. Butler, executive director of the Augusta Mini Theatre, Inc. “Our youth encounter issues such as this daily and this play was written to help them positively tackle these types of challenges.”
Tickets can be purchased by vis-iting the Augusta Mini Theatre at 2548 Deans Bridge Road, Augusta, GA 30906, calling (706) 722-0598 or visitingwww.augustaminitheatre.com.
It’s official –
Georgia Regents Univ. up and running
The cast
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Augusta Mini Theatre Presents
The Parents of Tabatha Tutt vs. D.J. Smoke
Feds say voting change hurts blacksVoting Rights challenge succeeds
The cast
TSPLOST funds could be key to expanded bus service
State senator Hardie Davis, along with other members of the Richmond County del-egation, met with city officials on Tuesday (Jan. 8) to discuss their needs and to help explain the millions of dollars in transportation funds which will begin pouring into Richmond County as early as March 2013. Photo by Vincent Hobbs
State representative Quincy Murphy expressed satis-faction that the U.S. Justice Department objected to the attempt to move city elections from November to July. Photo by Vincent Hobbs
By Frederick BenjaminUrbanProWeekly Staff Writer
AUGUSTAProponents of expand-
ed bus service in Augusta learned that increased fund-ing as a result of the one-cent transportation sales tax (TSPLOST) may be headed to Augusta — and very soon.
The unexpected windfall will result in the city’s share of “discretionary funding” which may be available as soon as March of this year. These funds may be used for any purpose that the city desires.
State transportation offi-cial Don Grantham and State Representative Hardie Davis updated the mayor and city commissioners at the Richmond County Legislative delegations day-long meet-ings with Augusta officials.
According to Grantham, because Richmond County and Columbia counties voted in favor of the TSPLOST ini-tiative last year, they are in
line for a share of $800 mil-lion in expected revenue over the next 10 years.
According to Grantham, minority participation in any proposed transporta-tion projects will be written into the bid process and that Augusta-Richmond’s engi-neering department will be in charge of the process.
City members who attend-ed the session including com-missioners Alvin Mason, Bill Lockett, and Marion Williams wanted to know if there were any guarantees in place to ensure adequate minority participation.
While no such assurances were forthcoming, the pros-pects of increased funding that could be used for public transportation was seen as encouraging.
According to Grantham, the amount of Augusta’s share of discretionary funds could be as high as $5 million.
Commissioner Bill Lockett, a champion for public trans-portation, has said that he
wants the current company that handles public transit out of the picture, citing non-compliance with contract
mandates.Commissioner Mason
wants to expand bus service further into South Augusta.
He has always maintained that public transit is there to serve the people and not make a profit.
AUGUSTAThe most recent buzz on
the voting rights front is the recent objection by the U.S. Department of Justice to pro-posed changes that would move Augusta’s city elections (mayor and commissioners) from November to July.
The measure, which was supported by local delega-tion member Barbara Sims, was purported to apply to all consolidated governments in the state, but it clearly targeted Democratic hotbed Richmond County.
In a letter dated Dec. 22, 2012, the Justice Department notified the state of Georgia that provisions in Senate Bill 92 which Governor Nathan Deal signed into law last spring did not pass muster. The Justice Department con-cluded that the state had not “met its burden of showing that the proposed changes has neither the purpose nor will have the effect of deny-
ing or abridging the right to vote on account of race or color or membership in a lan-guage minority group.”
The Justice Department explained that Augusta would have been the only “munici-pal-style” government in the state that would have been compelled to change its nonpartisan elections from November to July. The state had argued that Richmond County was not specifically mentioned in the bill.
The Justice Department, which reviewed documents, resolutions and statements provided by local politicians, civil rights organizations and activists, concluded that there was clear evidence that moving the elections from November to July would dis-proportionately effect African Americans.
“Our analysis . . . indi-cates that moving Augusta-Richmond’s mayoral and commissioner elections from
November to July would have a retrogressive effect on the ability of minority voters to elect candidates of choice to office,” the letter states.
State Representative Quincy Murphy said that members of the delegation had been working in support of the challenge since August 2012.
The federal agency went further and suggested that the intent of the legislation was discriminatory. It cited the large African American concentration in Richmond County and the importance of voter turnout.
The Justice Department also referenced the fact that the Augusta-Richmond com-mission passed a resolution asking that the elections not be moved.
The state can ask the U.S. Attorney General to recon-sider, otherwise it must let the Justice Department know what its intentions are.
By Frederick BenjaminUrbanProWeekly Staff Writer
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Venus Cain Helen Minchew
AUGUSTA“Pride and Passion: The African-American
Baseball Experience,” an exciting new trav-eling exhibition opening at Reese Library on Friday, January 18, examines the challenges faced by African-American baseball players as they sought equal opportunities in the sport beginning in the post-Civil War era.
The exhibit opens with a program at 5:30 p.m. in 170 University Hall, featuring a special segment of Ken Burns’ Baseball, fol-lowed by a panel discussion. Guest speakers will include former Negro League baseball players, Carl Long and Cliff Layton. Chris Kane, television news anchor for WJBF News Channel 6, will moderate the discussion. A reception and special preview of the exhibi-tion will follow in the Reese Library.
In the 1880s, more than 30 African Americans were on teams in baseball’s major and minor leagues. But opportunities diminished as Reconstruction ended and segregation became entrenched as part of American culture. During the 1887 season, league owners agreed to make no new con-tracts with African-American players. From that time on, until Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in 1947, baseball was a seg-regated sport.
In response, more than 200 independent all-black teams organized and barnstormed around the country, developing a reputation for a fast-running, power-hitting game. By the 1920s, black baseball had its own suc-cessful professional leagues. Negro league baseball grew into a multi-million dollar enterprise and a focus of great pride in the African-American community. Legendary figures such as Rube Foster, Buck Leonard, Oscar Charleston, James “Cool Papa” Bell, Josh Gibson and Satchel Paige thrilled audi-ences and helped pave the way for integra-tion of the major leagues in the mid-20th century.
In 1971, Satchel Paige became the first player inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame based solely on his performance in the Negro leagues. In the years that fol-lowed, more than 35 players and managers from such powerhouse Negro league teams as the Chicago American Giants, Kansas City Monarchs, St. Louis Stars, Pittsburgh Crawfords and Homestead Grays have been voted into the Hall of Fame.
“We are delighted to have been selected as a site for this exhibition,” said Autumn Johnson, User Engagement Librarian. “Players in the Negro leagues were some of the most talented and inspiring sports fig-ures of their day. This exhibition shows that, in spite of segregation, black players helped advance the game of baseball in many ways. The Kansas City Monarchs, a Negro league team, were the first to develop a successful lighting system for night games, five years before Major League Baseball played its first night game. They carried their own genera-tors and light stands with them on the road. The exhibition tells many more remarkable stories of players and teams who were shut out of major league baseball, but persevered in a sport they loved.”
The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum and the American Library Association Public Programs Office orga-nized the traveling exhibition, which was made possible by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH): great ideas brought to life. The traveling exhibition is based upon an exhibition of the same name on perma-nent display at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.
Women elected to top posts on Richmond school board by two women.
At it first meeting of the new year, school board trustees elected Venus Cain, president and Helen Minchew vice president of the local school board. Cain, a former vice president, was elected 8-1 at a January 5 organi-zational meeting.
The pair must guide the school sys-tem through the continuing budget short falls which have remained a challenge for the past several years.
New challenges are on the horizon
as the state prepares to implement new provisions for funding charter schools. It is widely believed that funding those independent entities will further erode funding for the state’s public schools.
The pair agreed that school safety and student achievement remain pri-orities for the school system.
The promotions also mean an increase in pay for the two trustees. Cain will receive $8,000 and Minchew will receive $7,400. Regular board
members receive $6,800 a year.The president sets the agenda, pre-
sides over the board meetings and represents the board in official func-tions.
Cain said she would like the board to look at ways to restore the roughly four furlough days planned for the rest of this school year, although the slash in state funding and budget demands may prevent that.
The next board meeting will be held on January 15.
AUGUSTAFor the first time ever, the top
posts on the Richmond County Board of Education will be held
Commissioner Marion Williams makes a point during a recent city meeting. Even before being elected to the commission, Williams had championed the implementation of recommendations outlined in the $500,000 disparity study which has largely been ignored by the city. A special session will be held on January 14, to discuss the matter. Photo by Vincent Hobbs
PURCHASING DISPARITY BACK ON THE FRONT BURNER.
Reserve space now for the next
Martin Luther King Jr. Birthday Edition
Jan. 17, 2013 • Call 706-394-9411
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AUGUSTA“Pride and Passion: The African-American
Baseball Experience,” an exciting new trav-eling exhibition opening at Reese Library on Friday, January 18, examines the challenges faced by African-American baseball players as they sought equal opportunities in the sport beginning in the post-Civil War era.
The exhibit opens with a program at 5:30 p.m. in 170 University Hall, featuring a special segment of Ken Burns’ Baseball, fol-lowed by a panel discussion. Guest speakers will include former Negro League baseball players, Carl Long and Cliff Layton. Chris Kane, television news anchor for WJBF News Channel 6, will moderate the discussion. A reception and special preview of the exhibi-tion will follow in the Reese Library.
In the 1880s, more than 30 African Americans were on teams in baseball’s major and minor leagues. But opportunities diminished as Reconstruction ended and segregation became entrenched as part of American culture. During the 1887 season, league owners agreed to make no new con-tracts with African-American players. From that time on, until Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in 1947, baseball was a seg-regated sport.
In response, more than 200 independent all-black teams organized and barnstormed around the country, developing a reputation for a fast-running, power-hitting game. By the 1920s, black baseball had its own suc-cessful professional leagues. Negro league baseball grew into a multi-million dollar enterprise and a focus of great pride in the African-American community. Legendary figures such as Rube Foster, Buck Leonard, Oscar Charleston, James “Cool Papa” Bell, Josh Gibson and Satchel Paige thrilled audi-ences and helped pave the way for integra-tion of the major leagues in the mid-20th century.
In 1971, Satchel Paige became the first player inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame based solely on his performance in the Negro leagues. In the years that fol-lowed, more than 35 players and managers from such powerhouse Negro league teams as the Chicago American Giants, Kansas City Monarchs, St. Louis Stars, Pittsburgh Crawfords and Homestead Grays have been voted into the Hall of Fame.
“We are delighted to have been selected as a site for this exhibition,” said Autumn Johnson, User Engagement Librarian. “Players in the Negro leagues were some of the most talented and inspiring sports fig-ures of their day. This exhibition shows that, in spite of segregation, black players helped advance the game of baseball in many ways. The Kansas City Monarchs, a Negro league team, were the first to develop a successful lighting system for night games, five years before Major League Baseball played its first night game. They carried their own genera-tors and light stands with them on the road. The exhibition tells many more remarkable stories of players and teams who were shut out of major league baseball, but persevered in a sport they loved.”
The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum and the American Library Association Public Programs Office orga-nized the traveling exhibition, which was made possible by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH): great ideas brought to life. The traveling exhibition is based upon an exhibition of the same name on perma-nent display at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.
The traveling exhibition is com-posed of colorful freestanding pan-els featuring photographs of teams, players, original documents and arti-facts in the collections of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum and in other institutions and collec-tions across the U.S.
The library is sponsoring free pro-grams and other events for the pub-lic in connection with the exhibition. Contact 706-667-4912, [email protected], or visit guides.aug.edu/base-ball for more information. “Pride and Passion: The African-American Baseball Experience” will be on display at the Reese Library until February 21.
New traveling exhibition tells the story of African Americans in baseball
By the 1920s, black baseball had its own successful professional leagues. Negro league base-ball grew into a multi-million dollar enter-prise and a focus of great pride in the African-American com-munity.
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2013 SPONY SPECIAL“Choose Your Own Price . . .”
The Martin Luther King Jr. program will be hosted by the Summerville campus of Georgia Regents University (GRU) on Friday, January 18, at noon in the Maxwell Performing Arts Theatre. The featured speaker will be Dr. Louis V. Baldwin of Vanderbilt University on “Remembering Martin Luther King Jr. in the Age of Obama.”
MLK Celebration at Georgia Regents Univ.Reserve space now for the next
Martin Luther King Jr. Birthday Edition
Jan. 17, 2013 • Call 706-394-9411
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NET GAiNSHOOPS MANIA AT LANEY: On Tuesday, January 8, the Lucy Laney Lady Wildcats defeated the Harlem High School Lady Bulldogs 78-32 in a game at the Laney gym. (At right) A hotly contesst possession. (Below) Cheerleaders rally the crowd during a basketball game at the Laney gym. Photos by Vincent Hobbs/UPW
INAUGURAL GAME AT PAINE: Paine College’s Allen Young (L) goes for the rebound against Stillman’s Markeith Madison (R). The Lions defeated the Stillman Tigers 96-90 in their first match at the new HEAL complex gym on January 5. Photo by Vincent Hobbs/UPW
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Library Events
Financial Wellness Month Activities
For TeensJanuary 22nd, 23rd & 24th @5:00
January is Financial Wellness Month, a time to put our money and wealth in perspective. But you’re a teen with no wealth, you say? Is the money you received at Christmas burning a hole in your pocket? Do you still have some money from your part-time job that was not spent on post-holiday shopping? Do you just want to learn how to make a dollar out of fifteen cents before you make your first dollar (or fifteen cents for that matter)? Make time this week to come out and talk with a representative from a local con-sumer credit agency. Watch a few videos aimed at teens and their finances. Check the website for exact times and daily activities and come find out how you can make “a dolla holla.”
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Urban WeeklyPro Forum
Self-inflicted terrorismAmerican cultural “norms” ofttimes leads to violence
Lauren McCauley, staff writerIn the latest incident of charter
school fraud, the state of Oregon is going after a pair of charter school con men who reportedly scammed the state out of $17 million.
The Oregonian is reporting that Tim King and Norm Donohoe, who ran a chain of taxpayer-funded char-ter schools under the guise of a non-profit named EdChoices, “submit-ted false, incomplete and misleading records about how many students were enrolled in the schools and how they were spending the state’s money.
The report continues:The pair opened and operated at
least 10 charter schools that went by various and changing names, includ-ing Baker Web Academy, Estacada Early College and Sheridan AllPrep Academy. Most were launched under the name AllPrep. They existed under agreements with the school boards in Estacada, Sisters, Baker City, Sheridan, Burns and Marcola,
but enrolled students from across the state in their online programs.
The state provided startup grants of up to $450,000 per charter school. The state Department of Education also paid about $6,000 a year for each student enrolled, relying on the charter school operators to docu-ment the number. The state now says those records were “erroneous, false and misleading.”
According to a state court fil-ing (.pdf), brought Thursday by the Oregon Department of Justice in Marion County Circuit Court, the pair is accused of racketeering and money laundering from 2007 to 2010 and is being ordered to repay the $17 million plus an additional $2.7 million for breach of contract and attorney fees.
Reportedly, many of the schools closed abruptly when state regula-tors began asking questions in spring 2010, leaving students and teach-ers with nowhere to go. Remaining schools have either since closed or continue to operate under new aus-pices.
Evidence suggests this is not the first or last time parents, stu-dents and state education boards will be swindled by privatized edu-cation. This summer, a renowned Philadelphia charter school mogul was indicted on multiple counts of wire fraud, obstruction of justice, and witness tampering. And between 2005 and 2011, the US Department of Education opened 53 investigations into charter school fraud, resulting in 21 indictments and 17 convictions
in states including California, Texas, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
“You have so few people keeping track of the char-ter schools,” said Philadelphia Inquirerreporter Martha Woodall, who has been mired in an ongo-ing investigation into Philadelphia’s charter schools, regarding the sys-tem’s lack of oversight.
Incidents of fraud are among the many reasons why the push to privatize education is wrought with the failings of corporatization.
As education historian Diane Ravitch writes:
The free market works very well in producing goods and services, but it works through competition. In com-petition, the weakest fall behind. The market does not produce equity. In the free market, there are a few winners and a lot of losers. Some corporate reformers today advocate that schools should be run like a stock portfolio: Keep the winners and sell the losers.
Charter school scams cost Oregon millionsLack of oversight’ in charter schools encouraging education fraud
by Lucinda Marshall
Consider the following:• 168 children have been killed by
American drone strikes during the last seven years.
• There were more than 500 deaths in Chicago last year.
• More U.S. troops die of self-inflicted wounds than in battle.
• Congress failed to re-authorize the Violence Against Women Act last year even though VAWA has been proven to be a cost effective way to save lives.
You cannot separate these facts, they are intrinsically linked in our culture that glorifies war and violence. A recent romp with my remote control through cable chan-nels illustrated all too clearly that the generation that is just now reaching adulthood has grown up with a staggering amount of violent entertainment that glorifies the use of force. If it isn’t about law and order, it is the Military Channel or a ‘reality’ show about border patrols or cops, never mind the computer games and on and on.
This is the generation that grew up with the military freely roam-ing school cafeterias recruiting our children courtesy of the No Child Left Behind Act under the watchful eye of Homeland Security and being told constantly that we must be vigilant and get the bad guys before
they get us. We have relentlessly told this gen-
eration that guns and violence are the way to solve things, exert power and get what you want.
Little wonder then that there is an epidemic of troops finding out that being in the military and killing people, especially little children, isn’t at all as cool or righteous as they were led to believe. And little wonder that there is a gun-possessed murder epidemic in this country. I simply do not remem-ber when the last time was that I opened my morning paper with-out finding a report of a murder, or more often than not, multiple murders. It is a daily event in this country.
And we need to hold Congress accountable. That they are more afraid of the gun lobby than of their constituents being killed is
unacceptable. In addition, their failure last year to re-authorize funding for the Violence Against Women Act leaves us with the dead-ly take-away that as a nation, we do not take violence against women seriously. And year after year, they give the military more and more money while education funding languishes.
We have set up a monstrous apparatus for catching ‘terrorists’ in this country. But let’s get real–taking off our shoes at the airport while a gun show goes on down the road and sending the military into our schools to entice our chil-dren to serve their country only to send them into service so point-less and brutal that they take their own lives and refusing to provide funds to address violence against women amounts to self-inf licted terrorism.
And think about this too–If a young Arab man commits
mass murder, he is described as a terrorist.
If a young man of color commits mass murder in a poor inner city neighborhood, he is described as a dangerous thug.
If a young man joins the military and accidentally kills innocent civilians on a bombing run, he is a hero and the deaths are referred to as accidental collateral damage.
If a young white man commits
mass murder in the suburbs, we say it was his mental health or his home life.
We need to do a reality check of our own situational percep-tions in labeling men (and yes it is almost always men and we need to confront that too), who kill and their victims, because regardless of where killing takes place and who pulls the trigger, dead is dead, killing is killing, whether it is chil-dren in Pakistan killed by a drone strike or children in a Connecticut suburb killed by a disturbed young man, and the grief of their loved ones is the same, no matter what their skin color is or where they live.
We must mourn all of those who have been murdered, and we must strive to end the culture of entitle-ment and impunity that allows and enables killing, wherever it takes place.
We need to think about what we have taught our children. It has very real and very deadly conse-quences. And we need to move away from equating punishment with justice. Doing that requires a massive shift in our thinking and a relentless connecting of dots in understanding the impact of our actions.
Copyright © 2013 Lucinda Marshall
Incidents of fraud are among the many reasons why the push to privatize education is wrought with the failings of corporatization.
We have relentlessly told this generation that guns and violence are the way to solve things, exert power and get what you want.
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So, you’re a visual artist, a spoken word artist, a singer, a musician, a comedian, an actor or actress, a model or fashion designer, or just a cool and artistic-minded person…does that automatically mean you have the skills to market and host a creative event?
Time’s up! The answer is: NO!! In my experi-
ence in the spoken word/art indus-try, I’ve come across many indi-viduals and sometimes whole orga-nizations that take on the task of hosting monthly or one-time events that are, at best, mediocre or highly unorganized.
Just like there is no such thing as a perfect person, there are no such things as “perfect events”. However, an event can be carefully planned, executed, remembered and held in high regard if the people behind the event care enough to take the time to make it quality.
In my opinion, the perfect for-mula for a successful artistic event lies in an old saying: “The right people, doing the right jobs, at the right time”.
Let’s break this down to explain a bit further. “The right people” need to be selected to have respon-sibility to help make the event run smoothly. One person may want all the control and all the credit for the event but that’s a recipe for
a stressed out individual who is more likely to drop the ball when it comes to certain important details.
Designating tasks (the right jobs) to people takes a huge amount of trust and experience with that person to know that they have your best interests in mind and are passionate about the goals of the event.
Really think about your social circle and determine who would be best for each position: hosting, taking the admission charge, han-dling the email list or open mic list, taking pictures, setting up equip-ment, etc. By trusting others and delegating jobs to the right people, it sets a foundation to eliminate a lot of stress and make room to have more fun!
When you market your event to the masses, it’s important to deter-mine “the right timing.” For exam-ple, you don’t want to announce your event years in advance. People have short attention spans and will forget all about it! You also don’t want to bombard people with countless emails, advertisements, texts, tweets, smoke signals, and carrier pigeons about your event. If people get annoyed by you, they will find somewhere else to be and decline your invitation altogether.
Instead, figure out your target audience and market to them about
2 or 3 weeks in advance. When you announce your event in a good time frame to people who will be interested in coming, expect a packed house of smiling faces!
Most event promoters and artists that also take on the role as “event host” have very limited budgets. If you can’t afford your vision or it’s not feasible to invest your money in an event to make it quality—THE EVENT SHOULD WAIT.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with postponing an event if you’re sure that when it does come
together, it will be something that will affect your commu-nity in a positive way and not have people waste their time for attend-ing.
Once again, good timing is key and very effective when it comes to successful events.
It’s the start of a brand new 2013 year. The calendar is a blank canvas slate waiting to be filled with excit-ing, artistic ventures!
Let’s Go!!
Livin OutLoud Artistic Commentary Provided by LadyVee DaPoet
The perfect formula for a successful event
11UrbanProW
eekly • JANUARY 10-17, 2013
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