Crowdsourcing funding platforms such as Kickstarter, Indiegogo and GoFundMe have become major ways for us to support eachothers dreams despite distance. We’ve seen this used for a number of projects from Issa Rae’s Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl to the Free Marissa campaign for Marissa Alexander. By sharing our resources in different ways, we have the ability to set ourselves free.
Here are a few crowdsourcing campaigns from fellow black creatives worth checking out this month:
Ferguson Youth Tech Impact Program
This week marks one year since the Ferguson uprising, a moment that has impacted many of us in this country and across the globe. Ferguson showed the indelible legacy of racism well into the 21st century and the unwavering millennial fervor to end it. Ferguson Youth Tech Impact is a program from Hands Up United that continues to carry us toward justice. By bringing coding and organizing together, brown and black youth of Ferguson are learning computer programming to build businesses that directly give back to their community. Let’s continue to support a community that has been instrumental in catalyzing the current fight for Black Lives Matter. Also, ThoughtWorks, a global IT consulting firm, has pledged to match every dollar donated up to $15,000.
Campaign Link: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/grow-ferguson-s-youth-tech-impact-program#/story
Deadline: August 18
(T)ERROR
(T)error is the timely award-winning documentary you might know you need to know about. Co-directed by directors Lyric R. Cabral (who we interviewed back in May) and David Felix Sutcliffe. (T)error gives the world its first glimpse into a domestic FBI counterterrorism sting in real time by following a former-Black-Panther-turned-FBI-informant on his latest assignment… without telling his superiors. We’ve never had this kind of access into the web of post-9/11 surveillance. And after the recent reveal that the government has been surveilling Black Lives Matter protesters, this kind of information has never been more necessary. Let’s help them (and ourselves) by helping them with their legal fees to ensure the film gets to a theater near you.
Campaign Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/terrordoc/terror-support-journalistic-freedom
Deadline: September 3
Seven Scribes
Seven Scribes is the latest media site revolutionizing the way we think about the internet or, as they say, “at least to suck a little less.” That latter is being modest because, quite frankly, in the four months since their launch, they have. Conceived by six creatives of color, the goal of the site is to make space for other poets, artists, writers, thinkers and dreamers of color to share quality content produced by them and the seventh scribe: you. So far their essays have included denouncing the death of the literary tradition through Twitter, “Trap Queen” as our generation’s greatest love song (by Blavity’s own Hanif Abdurraqib), and the emoji’s tie to black vernacular traditions. If you’re tired of click bait and interested in cultivating quality content for us by us, check out their campaign.
Campaign Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1394424784/seven-scribes
Deadline: September 15
Anthology
https://vimeo.com/135153005
We all know how interesting our 20s can be — if we want to put it politely. Finding ourselves either doing the most or not enough, this particular decade can feel like a ride. Anthology is the latest independent series to highlight this by focusing on the lives of six 20-somethings figuring out themselves in NYC. The latest project by Nuanse Entertainment, a production company based in Harlem with black women Ashley Denise and Ricki Lynée at the helm, Anthology brings together “an ethnically-diverse cast, improvised dialogue and gorgeous cinematography” for magic. Let’s continue to elevate another group of storytellers enhancing the representation of the goings-on of black millennials.
Campaign Link: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/anthology-series-new-season-fund#/story
Date: Ongoing
Want more roundups like this? Sign up for our weekly newsletter below.
[mc4wp_form]
