block party meeting notes june 11th

who was there:
myself
dave
danielle
elijah (sort of)

we talked about:
performers: the line up so far is:
ReadNex Poetry Squad
Mahina Movement
Spiritchild (Mental Notes)
Kahlil Khan
Poetas en NY
DJ Oja
DJ E-Class
DJ Merge
Ol Soul
Tina G.
Miss Lizzy

Dave says he talked to this woman Nikki and she can book this rapper Maino, who's actually really big. he's from bed stuy and you can watch his video on youtube.

I'm gonna look into booking this MC Ra Hendrix. Also i'd like to book some more lady artists -- climbin' poetree can't do it but i have someone else in mind

Danielle said she could book this Afrobeat jazz artist.

We need to confirm everything within a week or so. Please let us know right way if there's anything else you wanna add to the bill.

Workshops/presentations -- Nikki knows someone who can do a "know your rights" workshop. He's an ex-cop which is kinda weird, though it seems like his goal is to help ppl defend themselves against the police. We're gonna talk with him beforehand. Dave and Danielle are gonna look into booking a speaker from malcolm x grassroots. They might also check with NYMAA. I think we should look out for more workshops too.

Tabling -- so far we only have confirmed the orgs from 123 as well as ISIS. Dave's gonna check with the Black Veterans for Social Justice. I'm gonna check with magnolia tree earth center, some local community gardens, the audre lorde project, movement in motion, and more. ABC is gonna have a table where you canw rite postcards to political prisoners. Also i bet we can sell TONS of i heart bed-stuy t-shirts and other stuff too...

food: we're waiting to hear back from kalabash food co-op to see if they wanna sell food. Danielle's also gonna talk to sista's place. April might bring some food. We need beverages like lemonade and smoothies. We're gonna look for one of those big beverage dispensers so we can give away cold water for free. Quinn's gonna see if the freegans can come up with some free food as well. Elijah wants to make popcorn. Dave's gonna get a grill.

kid's stuff: Francesca wants to do face painting. Danielle's looking into masks. We can have sidewalk chalk. Danielle's gonna look into a puppet show and maybe some storytelling stuff -- i think from a woman named trish. We want to have a kid's area and possibly some workshops happening inside so people can take a break from heat and music. there was also talk of some kind of kid's talent show.

art/decoration -- we had some ideas for this like crepe paper and trying to get free balloons from this balloon place. Also we had a kinda ambitious idea of having some sort of posters/quilt thing honoring musicians, artists, and activists from bed stuy. I guess the easy version would to be to just have a written version with ppl's names. Also we can get a few pieces of plywood and let artists go crazy on them to add more color to the party.

equipment -- we're gonna ask the church if we can borrow some folding tables and chairs. DJ E-Class has a bunch of fancy equipment he said we can use, though we need to ask the performers specifically what we need. I'm gonna get on that. Also we're gonna need to build a stage which should have a tarp over it in case it rains. Dave says maybe Andrew can draw up a plan.

promotion -- im gonna confirm the artists and make a flyer asap. I'll probably need at least a week. And I guess we should start seeing if people can do a rain date?

police -- should we tell them what;s going on beforehand or just hope they won't show up and have a problem with the party? Do we need a sound permit? It's only till 8pm. I know some people i can ask about permits though.

security -- we're gonna need a lot of people staffing, managing the line-up, watching kids, preventing any drugs, alcohol, violence, etc. we should meet with all the volunteer before hand and plan stuff out.

ok
it's 2am
i'm excited though
-s