Tag: Fund Raising

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Music Music Blog

Programs Ramp Up To Assist Musicians Losing Work Due To COVID-19

CREDIT: Courtesy Blues City Cafe

Courtesy Blues City Cafe

For musicians, the brave new world we all face in the shadow of COVID-19 is especially difficult. As a recent NPR story notes, “almost at once, it seemed like the entire March calendars of musicians across the country were wiped clean. Within hours Wednesday, thousands of dollars in expected income vanished.”

While many are exploring live-streamed concerts and the tips they can provide, for many players the funds from these events are too little, too late.

But there are signs of hope for these artists, often from very local institutions who realize that if Memphis is to remain a music city, something, or someone, has got to give.

Yesterday Music Export Memphis, a nonprofit that has assisted so many touring acts based here, announced that it was launching fundraising for a COVID-19 Emergency Relief Fund. While details of how financial assistance will be administered are still being worked out, the program is now taking donations, in anticipation of an ever-escalating need in the weeks and months to come.

The Blues Foundation is another local nonprofit that is stepping up its community assistance, with a COVID-19 Emergency Relief Fund for Blues Musicians. As the foundation announced that its upcoming Blues Music Awards will pivot to become a series of online events, “they are asking those who have purchased 2020 BMA tickets and/or Blues Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony tickets to convert those purchases to donations to be applied directly to this Emergency Relief Fund. Ticket purchasers will also be offered the option for a refund of their ticket purchases or to apply those purchases to next year’s events.” Noting that The Blues Hall of Fame Museum is closed for the time being, they add that they “will continue to accept phone calls and respond to emails throughout the duration of the coronavirus pandemic.”

On a national level, other efforts have sprung into action. The Recording Academy®, which oversees the Grammy Awards, and has a strong chapter based in Memphis, has operated the MusiCares® foundation for some time. It typically offers medical relief to musicians caught off guard without insurance or other niceties of salaried jobs, but has now begun a COVID-19 Relief Fund. 

And Bandcamp, where so many independent artists offer their recorded wares (or files), made this announcement on Tuesday:

To raise even more awareness around the pandemic’s impact on musicians everywhere, we’re waiving our revenue share on sales this Friday, March 20 (from midnight to midnight Pacific Time), and rallying the Bandcamp community to put much needed money directly into artists’ pockets….Still, we consider this just a starting point.

So get online tomorrow and purchase those singles, EPs, albums, and downloads. Your spending will go directly into the pockets of musicians in need. And if you have the means, consider donating to some of the initiatives above. For a musician, it could make all the difference. 

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News News Blog

Groups Raise Funds for Community Garden, Natural Playground, Pocket Park

CREDIT: ioby

ioby

Community Table Food Bank Garden

The Community Table Food Bank Garden, an organic vegetable garden in Midtown, wants to add fruit to its crop.

The garden currently donates all of its vegetables to local food pantries and soup kitchens every week with the goal of “improving the quality of the food available for our most vulnerable neighbors.”

Now, organizers are seeking to raise $2,610 by the end of the year in order to add fruit trees, a row of blueberry bushes, and native pollinator plants to the garden.

“Our Community Food Bank Garden is a beautiful wildlife haven in the center of a bustling urban neighborhood that is also serving it’s neighbor’s in a major way,” the fund-raising page reads. “We currently harvest and drop off produce weekly to our local food pantry, which serves hundreds of families. And the more healthy, safe food we can grow, the more people we can serve!”

The garden is located at 1895 Madison.

ioby

Rendering of Treadwell Natural Playground

Further east, a community group seeks to raise $20,635 to build the Treadwell Natural Playground.

The Treadwell Partners in Education group wants to provide a place to play that children in the neighborhood can easily access.

“Currently, the K-5 students at Treadwell have a pad of asphalt and an empty field to play on during recess,” the fund-raising page reads. “The closest playground that our neighborhood has access to is more than a mile away at Gaisman Park.”

The playground will use creative landscaping to “give kids an outdoor experience with some fun twists to enhance their innate curiosity and allow them to interact with nature.”

The preliminary plan for the playground includes a collection of vertical poles to “define the space, provide shape, and engage the imagination.” It also features climbing nets, crawling tunnels, balance beams, a sandbox, and seating areas.

Organizers said the need for a playground in the Heights neighborhood is great, citing a 2019 Trust for Public Land report showing that the residents there have some of the lowest access to park space in the city. The report includes an interactive map indicating the need for parks throughout the city ranging from “moderate” to “very high.” A large portion of the Heights neighborhood is colored red, indicating a very high need.

The goal is to have the playground up and running by the end of this school year. The fund-raiser ends December 7th.

Another community is looking to provide a safe space for kids to play by creating a pilot pocket park. Residents of High Point Terrace are looking to raise $8,799 by March 2020 for this project.

The park will be located on Highland and Mimosa, restricting vehicle access from Highland. The organizers anticipate this will cut down on cut-through traffic, as well as crimes in the neighborhood, such as car-theft, break-ins, and porch pirate thefts.

The pilot will run for six months and, if successful, a permanent park could be constructed.

All three projects are a part of the city and county’s New Century of Soul Challenge, meaning the funds donated will be matched up to $10,000.

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We Recommend We Recommend

The Literary Nightlife

Any month is a good month to support your neighborhood branch of the Memphis Public Library. But this November, the Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library, at 3030 Poplar, is a great place to be.

There’s a performance by Alaskan storyteller and fiddler Ken Waldman on November 13th, a showing of the Scandinavian film Mother of Mine (this month’s offering in the library’s “Wider Angle” film series) on November 14th, and free classes on computer basics for adults throughout the month.

But to start the month, the Central Library is not only the place to be, it’s the place to give. “After Hours,” the Foundation for the Library’s annual fund-raising gala, is Saturday, November 3rd. For $100 per person ($700 for a table of eight), guests will be treated to cocktails and dinner (catered by Another Roadside Attraction), live music (including a performance by the Memphis Men’s Chorale), and a silent auction — so keep your voice down, this here’s a library. Not so silent during “After Hours”: the night’s keynote speaker — political satirist and author Christopher Buckley (pictured).

If you don’t know Buckley’s titles (No Way To Treat a First Lady, Washington Schlepped Here, and, most recently, Boomsday), surely you know the movie Thank You for Smoking starring Aaron Eckhart and Robert Duvall. It was based on Buckley’s book of the same title. And maybe you know another Buckley book: The White House Mess, which was a work of fiction. The current White House mess isn’t fiction, it’s a fact. And surely Christopher Buckley has some words to say on the subject. That’ll be fine. It’s “After Hours.”

“After Hours,” the Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library, Saturday, November 3rd, 7-11 p.m. For reservations or more information, call 415-2834.