About this project

Background

Two DJs, One Percussionist, One VJ, Occasional Guest Performers/DJs and one Amazing Crowd packed into one of the smallest venues in the greater Boston Area. It is a musical, visual, atmospheric explosion and exploration of the African cultural diaspora. This is what we have been enjoying on a monthly basis for the last 2 years. Featuring some of the hottest talent from Africa and the States like DJ/Producer Black Coffee (South Africa), Balla Kouyate (Mali), DJ Rich Medina (Philly, USA), Wunmi (Lagos), Ian Friday (NYC, USA)

.. As beautiful as it is, as much as we appreciate its intimacy and its grassroots vibe, it is time to expand on the experience and take it to the next level.

We’ve begun that work, creating the JUMP! sister party to Uhuru Afrika in the spring of 2010, bringing in fantastic afro-diasporic local musical acts to share the evening with our resident DJs & percussionist. Through the generosity of our resident collaborators and our local acts, we’ve proven that this party can be a successful companion to Uhuru Afrika, and a second worthy monthly party in the Uhuru Afrika family.

The Vision

You walk into a club from the cold Boston street, walk under a wax cloth banner proclaiming 'Uhuru Afrika' and into a room filled with a dancing multi-cultural crowd. African waxcloth prints drape the walls, the DJs are *killing* it, a 12 piece band is getting ready on the stage, a percussionist is playing in the middle of the dance floor inspiring energetic movement, a visual soundtrack plays out on a screen above the band. You drop your coat, get lost on the dancefloor, and in the blink of an eye, find yourself transported to another place. Hours later, the party is over, and you reluctantly find your coat, move towards home, taking the positivity of the people you partied with, the band, the DJ, the visuals out with you, warming up that night and warming up your soul as you anxiously await the next JUMP!

The Need

We are seeking your commitment to build with us the foundation which will kickstart an outstanding multi-sensory experience in a 300 person capacity venue (JUMP!’s current home – Oberon). We are looking to bring top-tier national and global afro-diasporic acts, that can at times include 15 or more musicians, to the Boston music scene. With logistics including travel, food, lodging, instruments and backline equipment (like monitors, mics, drumkits etc), it can get expensive real quick. We are looking for funding to initially make it easier for us to bring acts that are slightly out of the reach of the 'out of pocket' funded event (which we currently are). Our vision is to being in acts that are better known, have more crowd draw, and will allow us to gain momentum, press and awareness so that the party can develop to meet our vision and become sustainable.

The Ask

We are reaching out to our community now to get your commitment to work with us to grow JUMP! into a fully sustainable party. If even half of the beautiful people on our mailing list and Facebook groups invested just $5 in JUMP!, we'll get where we are going. But we know that we can be a little more ambitious. We're asking you to invest $25, $50, or $100 (or more, if you are so blessed). Of course we'll consider ourselves blessed if $5 is what you can offer now.

The Reward

When we fully fund this campaign, we'll have the ability to give appropriate guarantees to our guest bands, make sure they are housed and fed properly, and take financial risks bringing in big name guests artists. We'll do this all while keeping the cover of each party affordable ($10). We anticipate that the $3,000 goal of this campaign will get JUMP! to sustainability, through allowing us to fully realize our vision, and do the promotion needed to get each party filled up. If we go beyond our goal, we'll put the additional monies towards the visual vision the party - funding a commission with artist Ife Franklin for banners to decorate the sides of the stage, and additional decorations and lights for the venue to further visually transform the space. Ife is one of the earliest supporters of the Uhuru Afrika & JUMP! visions, is an outstanding fabric artist, and brings the love to every party.

Plus, by investing in the party, you'll get some great "thank you" gifts from us. Check the rewards on the side.