Zion Trinity is Our February AwesomeNOLA Winner for Their Project Spirit of the Orisha
Click the link above to check out a short video about Zion Trinity’s winning project, “Spirit of the Orisha”
Category Archives: Winner Announcement
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Spirit of the Orisha & Zion Trinity is our February Grant Winner!
Here is the winning application for the month of February!
Spirit of the Orisha
Zion Trinity
A little about me:
We are the Worldbeat/Reggae band Zion Trinity. We are singers and songwriters who have been performing in New Orleans and nationally for the past 17 years. We operate a cultural center on Bayou Rd and we will be celebrating the 20th anniversary of our business in February. As a female and Black owned business, we are especially proud of our longevity. We provide free and low cost workshops and we teach Orisha Song classes and generally serve as a knowledge center for sacred African traditions.
Here’s my idea:
We have completed a 2 disc CD entitled “Spirit of the Orisha: Voices of the Diaspora”. This CD set will accompany a book that we have written as a teaching tool for the global community on the sacred music of the Yoruba people of Nigeria, West Africa. This book and CD provides the missing link in our cultural preservation of sacred African music. This body of work has global and historical significance in that it has not only never been done before, but it is centered in New Orleans, a leader in the US in preserving African religious and cultural traditions, particularly through the work of Congo Square. The work is a journey into Zion Trinity’s unique style of blending music with Spirit and history. The book will translate and explain the meaning of songs as well as the symbols they contain, including explanations about the Orishas and their attributes. Containing all original artwork, this project will serve as a workbook for a community workshops and trainings. For the past 15 years, we have used these songs to help youth work through emotional and social stress and trauma to gain empowerment over their lives. The project also has songs that aid in rites of passage, such as birthing, funerals and burials.
How I will use the money:
The money awarded to Zion Trinity will be used to produce this powerful body of work that will teach the community about ceremony while preserving ancient spiritual traditions that feed us in mind, body & soul.
1000 double-disk CDs w/ packaging (2000 total disks) = $1950 1000 Lyrics Book, to accompany CDs= $850 Teaching workshop series (Footsteps of the African Diaspora) = $1500-$2000 Weekly Orisha Spirit Song Classes = $250
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December’s AwesomeNOLA Winner: Team Happy Foundation
December’s AwesomeNOLA award was a tough one! We had so many great ideas that deserved to be funded, and we really hope that a lot of folks re-apply so that they can have another chance to receive $1000 to make some fabulous projects happen.
Team Happy Foundation, with founder Happy Johnson, won our December award for his great idea to focus on working with the youth to develop the survival, preparedness and preservation skills.
Happy Johnson accepts his award at WBOK 1230AM Morning Show with Oliver Thomas and producer Lee Hardy
You know we love the kids! Read his award winning application below. Remember: it doesn’t matter who you are, how old you are or who you represent, what matters is how great your idea is! And how much it will meet our mission of making NOLA a better place.
So, while we won’t be selecting a winner this January, a submission will be chosen first thing in February!
So you have until January 27, 2014 to get those applications in!!
December’s Winning Idea: Preparedness & Wetlands Club
Students are asked to submit a one-page handwritten book report (4 sentence minimum) and on the back of the same page, illustrate their favorite idea about the story!
The aforementioned assignments will enhance their final journal entry: a 6-step action plan on how they will help their community become more prepared for hurricane season and also, how they will become advocates for the environmental restoration of wetlands in Southeast Louisiana (3 steps for each concept).
Wednesday, January 15, 1:30-2:30p – 50 students receive The Adventures of Happy & Big Wanda. * Author reads, signs and disseminates books; explains club goals; 30mins for each separate class of 25 students. Wednesday, January 29 – book reports and illustrations are collected and picked up.
Wednesday, February 13, 1:30-2:30p – 50 students receive Fearless Delta Fox. * Hour is spent same as above. Wednesday, February 27 – book reports and illustrations are collected and picked up.
Wednesday, March 13, 1:30-3:00p – 50 students receive Backyard Bayou. * Students will receive books at urban wetlands field trip. Wednesday, March 27 – book reports, illustrations and 6-step action plans are collected/picked up.
The club’s culminating story time and book dissemination will take place during a field trip to the Viewing Platform of Bayou Bienvenue’s Wetland Triangle at the corner of Caffin and Florida Avenue. Students will hear from wildlife experts and see firsthand many of the lessons highlighted throughout the collection of books. Before departing campus for the field trip, students will watch a 20minute documentary titled Bayou Sundance produced by L9 Center for Sustainable Development and Engagement, which focuses on the urban bayou in the city’s backyard!
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Take A Professional to School Day: November’s Awesome Grant Winners
NOLA Black Professionals holding their winning check at the Central City Fest
This month’s Awesome New Orleans grant winners are NOLA Black Professionals for their project:
Take a Professional To School Day
Check out her idea:
After launching Nolablackprofessionals.com, I got the crazy idea to remix Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day. So I gather professionals of all races together and we take over a school. It’s not like your normal boring Career Day. We dress like ourselves, we talk to the kids in a relatable manner, we invite a local DJ to provide music during our lunch session and then we allow the kids to ask us questions at the end of the day. I wanted to create something dope that the students would like and appreciate.
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October is Awesome for NOLA Community Media Center!
We were honored to award $1000 to Desiree Evans of the New Orleans Community Media Center.
Check out her award winning application, and then apply here: www.awesomefoundation.org/en/submissions/new
A little about me:
Born and raised in South Louisiana, I have a diverse background in journalism, community advocacy, and non-profit work in the region. During the past 15 years, I have had the opportunity to work with numerous organizations in the media and nonprofit sectors, striving to create media that provides a range of information, perspectives and points of view to propel our communities to local and international awareness and informed decision-making. I have learned that the media can be a powerful tool.
Here’s my idea:
I am requesting a grant to fund the first community-media workshop from the New Orleans Center for Community Media. The workshop will take place over the course of four Saturdays. Facilitated by two teaching media artists, and attended by ten community members, the workshop will cover the basics of storytelling and interviewing, and it will include an introduction to multimedia tools. Participants will work in groups to create a short reporting piece covering an issue in their neighborhood.
The Current Context
New Orleans is a city where stories hold power. But not every community has access to the tools that would allow them to communicate their stories in the steadily shifting media landscape. There are still many barriers to media engagement, particularly for low-income communities of color.
The Vision: Storytelling for Transformation
The New Orleans Center for Community Media is a start-up media training and resource center supporting community-based and grassroots media production aimed at elevating the voices of communities across the city. Our work is centered in bringing communication tools to underserved populations, providing these communities with the media production technology and resources to tell, document, and preserve their own stories and the stories of their communities through both traditional and emerging media platforms. Using a multi-pronged approach steeped in media literacy, media training, media justice, and the media arts, we work with and within communities to use media as a tool for advancing community voice and social justice.
My vision for this media center is rooted in work I have done over the years in community media. In Chicago I taught urban youth journalism in the housing projects. In Oakland I worked with youth of color on digital storytelling projects. In New Orleans I seek to create similar spaces to house projects and trainings that nurture civic engagement, community building, and media-based strategies for change.
How I will use the money:
Budget:
Space Rental (4 Saturdays @ $50.00/day): $200 Small Flip Video Camcorders (5 used @ $50.00/each): $250 Video Projector: $120 Voice Recorders (5 at $9.95/each): $49.75 Course Booklet Photocopies (12 booklets @ $6.00/copy): $72 Sticky 20″ x 23″ Easel Butcher Paper: $27.99 Markers (2 packs @ $3.99/each): $7.98 Pocket Folders (2 packs of 10 @ $4.29/each): $8.58 Legal Pads (3 packs of 4 @ $2.99/each): $8.97 Pens (2 packs @ $2.19/each): $4.38 Food (lunch will be provided): $250 Total: $999.65
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September’s Winner is 2-Cent’s Listen! Literacy & Arts Festival!!
Focusing on the violence and education crises within our community, Listen! is an outdoor cultural arts festival organized by 2-Cent that offers an opportunity for New Orleans’ young people to form alliances for social activism, to voice their concerns, and to strategize for community betterment. We partner with Scholastic, Inc. to give out 10,000 brand new books and also to provide literacy training for parents at the festival. We reach out to local schools to encourage student participation by way of performances and essay contests.
Please join us at our next Awesome Hours event – Friday, September 20th (4-6pm) at the Algiers Harvest Fresh Market, Teche and Newton Streets on the Westbank. We’ll present a $1000 check to this month’s winner, 2-Cent Entertainment, and they’ll talk about their AWESOME project! After the check giveaway, trustees will be available to talk one-on-one with YOU about your project ideas and help you to apply.
Remember, we make $1000 grants every month. Proposals are now being accepted for the October grant cycle. So if you applied, but didn’t receive a grant during this cycle, we encourage you to re-apply!
– Your friends at Awesome New Orleans
About Awesome New Orleans: Launched in January 2013, Awesome New Orleans awards monthly $1,000, no-strings-attached grants for “civic media” and “social good” projects to applicants in the Orleans Parish area. We accept applications from everyone who has a great idea– individuals, community organizations and nonprofits alike. Click here to apply!!
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Congrats to Ride New Orleans, our August Grant Winner!
Ride New Orleans’ CBD Transfer Station Campaign, “Giving Transit Riders The Seat They Deserve”, will send a message to decision-makers in New Orleans: invest in a true CBD transfer station that provides basic comforts to current riders and encourages new ridership from tourists and residents who typically drive. More than 40% of RTA riders wait at the transfer point for 45 minutes or longer, and there are no public restrooms, route maps, shelter, and very few places to sit.
Please join us at our next Awesome Hours event – Saturday, August 17th (3pm-5pm) at Tru Rootz Natural Hair Salon, 3351 Kabel Drive, Suite D. We’ll present a $1000 check to this month’s winner, Ride New Orleans, and they’ll talk about their AWESOME campaign! After the check giveaway, trustees will be available to talk one-on-one with YOU about your project ideas and help you to apply.
Remember, we make $1000 grants every month. Proposals are now being accepted for the September grant cycle. So if you applied, but didn’t receive a grant during this cycle, we encourage you to re-apply!
– Your friends at Awesome New Orleans
About Awesome New Orleans: Launched in January 2013, Awesome New Orleans awards monthly $1,000, no-strings-attached grants for “civic media” and “social good” projects to applicants in the Orleans Parish area. We accept applications from everyone who has a great idea– individuals, community organizations and nonprofits alike. Click here to apply!!
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July’s Grant Winner is…
Congratulations to July’s grant winner – Campaign to End Employment Discrimination!
Campaign to End Employment Discrimination, a project of Voice Of The Ex-Offender (VOTE), is a media outreach campaign aimed at encouraging employers to hire ex-offenders. VOTE is a grassroots organization dedicated to the economic empowerment and civic engagement of formerly incarcerated people and their community.
Please join us at our next Awesome Hours event – Saturday, July 20th (6-8pm) at Casa Borrega, 1719 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd. We’ll present a $1000 check to this month’s winner, Campaign To End Employment Discrimination. After the check giveaway, trustees will be available to talk one-on-one with you about your project ideas and help you to apply.
Remember, we make $1000 grants every month. Proposals are now being accepted for the August grant cycle. So if you didn’t receive a grant during this cycle, we encourage you to re-apply!
– Your friends at Awesome New Orleans
About Awesome New Orleans: Launched in January 2013, Awesome New Orleans awards monthly $1,000, no-strings-attached grants for “civic media” and “social good” projects to applicants in the Orleans Parish area. We accept applications from everyone who has a great idea– individuals, community organizations and nonprofits alike. Click here to apply!!
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Update on our March Grantee – Creative Futures
In March, we gave our first $1000 grant to Creative Futures to train high school students to plan, produce, interview and speak on “Crosstown Conversations,” a show on local radio station, WBOK.
SO, how are our inaugural grantees doing? We recently checked in with them and found out that they hosted an art exhibition at the McKenna Museum last month! Creative Futures gets AROUND! Check it out.
CANO’s Creative Futures, in partnership with John McDonogh High School, connects students to career and educational opportunities in the creative fields. Talented aspiring visual artists from John McDonogh showcased their original pieces at the McKenna Museum during Mothers’ Day Weekend. May 11, 2013. All art work was available for sale. Out of 26 paintings, 18 were sold!… Please support these students by posting positive comments that will encourage them to continue being artists!!
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