BE-IMAGINATIVE Won an Emmy! Help Us Celebrate!

'Dear Beloved: Music & Storytelling w/ SOL Development & BE-IMAGINATIVE’ has won an Emmy!

And we need your help to support us with a powerful celebration for our families, collective members and partners of BE-IMAGINATIVE who have worked so powerfully to make this happen. On July 18, we will have our very first celebration ever. Congratulations to all of our contributors. This is a big win, a win for the culture.

Donations from this GoFundMe will be used for our party and to continue the mission of BE-IMAGINATIVE. 

NOTE: This celebration is not sponsored or hosted by KQED, the distributor of Dear Beloved.

 

 

ABOUT DEAR BELOVED:

 

‘Dear Beloved’ is an exceptional experience with collaborative works and music of SOL Development and BE-IMAGINATIVE, as we use our artistry and lived experience to disrupt cycles of trauma and violence in our community. This film is a KQED production.

 

Hosted by KQED’s Pendarvis Harshaw, directed by Benjamin McBride and Elie Khadra and filmed at West Oakland’s historic 16th Street Train Station, a hub for the Great Migration of African Americans from Southern states to the Bay Area during the 20th century, we invite you to bear witness to the healing power of telling one’s own story.

 

Our powerful mothers recite poignant letters written to their angel children. Mama Tonya Lancaster, Mama Annette Miller and Mama Myra Jones of the BE-IMAGINATIVE collective share their stories of the powers of grief, and summon restorative care and resilience. Their stories are accompanied by music from members of hip-hop ensemble SOL Development, including "I'm Alive" and "Her Pain" at 25th Street Recording Studio.

 

ABOUT BE-IMAGINATIVE:

 

BE-IMAGINATIVE is a collective of exceptional artists, powerful healers, and impactful community leaders who are dedicated to healing our black and brown communities through multidimensional storytelling. Based in Oakland, California, BE builds community through gatherings and ceremonies rooted in African ancestral tradition and the memorialization of ancestors through visual and performance art, grieving rituals and healing to #DISRUPTHOPELESSNESS, especially among survivors of gun violence.

 

ABOUT SOL DEVELOPMENT:

 

SOL Development (Source of Light), mirrors Nina Simone’s quintessential words: an artist’s duty is to reflect the times. The band offers music to illuminate today’s cultural and political climate, matching it with a sound that allows the listener to feel empowered in finding their own activism and healing.

 

The band released their full length debut album, The SOL of Black Folk: Of The Dawn of Freedom in February 2019. The album title pays homage to W.E.B Du Bois’ The Souls of Black Folk and is specially connected to his chapter “Of the Dawn of Freedom.”