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Archive for February, 2009

“DIGIT” PARTNERS WITH LISA LOPES FOUNDATION

Wednesday, February 25th, 2009

PRESS RELEASE

“DIGIT” PARTNERS WITH LISA LOPES FOUNDATION

TO LAUNCH CAMPAIGN FOR THE ARTS

-A NATIONAL INITIATIVE TO HELP SAVE THE ARTS IN SCHOOLS-

(Washington, DC) – February 23, 2009, “Digit” announces partnership with Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes Foundation (LLF) to launch Campaign for the Arts, a nationwide initiative to keep the arts in schools.

Campaign for the Arts was created to promote artists of all genres, raise money for schools and not-for-profits and focus on providing solutions to issues that are plaguing our nation and our kids, while teaming with people worldwide to collectively help save the arts in our schools.

Founded by Digit, a Recording Artist, Songwriter and Producer, Campaign for the Arts Executives are industry leaders in Public Relations, Music and Legal Advisory. The overall team is composed of Celebrities (Entertainers), Musicians (All Genres), Radio Personalities, Record Labels, Booking Agents, Managers, Producers, Stylists, Designers, Promoters, Writers, Photographers, Sponsors, Travel Consultants, Educators, Students, Parents and Volunteers.

“As a business leader, artist, and someone who has benefited from community art programs, I understand leadership, teamwork and the importance of protecting and educating our youth through social initiatives and creative arts. My background has given me a great understanding of the value of investing in our future,” stated “Digit,” Founder.

“Our goal is to raise $150,000, by May 1, 2009 and continue raising funds thereafter. With the support of our team and generous sponsors, we can meet our goal and launch the most memorable movement ever for Arts in Education,” he added.

With assistance from Music Producers, EP’s will be used to help raise funds. This initiative will allow artists to combine their talent to make chart topping EP’s in support of this cause. The unified message is that protecting the vision and creativity of artists, is not an option.

Events given by “The Campaign” will be hosted by the Lisa Lopes Foundation and a portion of all proceeds raised will go toward the foundation. Additional proceeds will go toward the charities and schools chosen to participate as a partner in individual states. Not-for-Profit Organizations and schools will be chosen based on their level of commitment, current programs and through the recommendations of our sponsors. Join the Campaign today!

About Campaign for the Arts

Founded in 2009, by Recording Artist “Digit,” the mission of the Executives and Team of Campaign for the Arts is to collectively help save the arts in schools worldwide, bring attention to artists of all genres, raise money for schools and not-for-profits and focus on providing solutions to issues that are plaguing our nation and our kids. Visit www.campaignforthearts.com, for more info.

About Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes Foundation (LLF)

Headquartered in Stone Mountain, GA, the Lisa Lopes Foundation was developed in 2003. The mission of LLF is to transform communities by providing access to Basic Health, Education, Self-Awareness and Recreational Programs for children living in low-income communities within the US and underdeveloped communities within Central America. LLF programs center on developing and reinforcing life skills in Healthy Lifestyles, Financial Literacy, Career Development, Civic and Social Responsibility, and Cultural Arts and Awareness. Visit www.lisalopesfoundation.org, for more info.

Media Contact: Tafia L. Allah-Pringle, TLAPR Agency, LLC at tafia@tlapr.com or 973.902.6749, Publicist for Campaign for the Arts, “Digit” and the Lisa Lopes Foundation.

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Featured Contributor

Kevin Powell

"My life-calling is to be a servant for the people, period. Money, fame, status, personal achievements, and all that means very little to me when pain and suffering are still real on this planet. I am interested in the powerless becoming powerful." - Kevin Powell

Kevin Powell is widely considered one of America's most important voices in these early years of the 21st century. Legendary feminist Gloria Steinem asserts that "as a charismatic speaker, leader, and a very good writer, Kevin Powell has the courage...to be fully human, and this will bring the deepest revolution of all." Internationally acclaimed scholar and social critic Dr. Michael Eric Dyson has called Powell "a mighty wind of fresh air." And of Kevin Powell, the writer asha bandele says, "When you consider the intelligence and breadth of Kevin Powell's writing and activism, you come to the conclusion that there may be no better spokesperson and representative for a generation that has too long been counted out."

Kevin Powell is a political activist, poet, journalist, essayist, hiphop historian, public speaker, and entrepreneur. A product of extreme poverty, welfare, fatherlessness, and a single mother-led household, he is a native of Jersey City, New Jersey and was educated at New Jersey's Rutgers University. Kevin Powell is a longtime resident of Brooklyn, New York, and it is from his base in New York City that Powell has published seven books, including his current title, Someday We'll All Be Free (Soft Skull Press). This new book is a collection of provocative essays on freedom, democracy, justice, and race in America, as inspired by Hurricane Katrina, the 2004 presidential election, and September 11th. Powell is set to publish two books in 2008, No Sleep Till Brooklyn, his second volume of poetry; and The Black Male Handbook: A Blueprint for Life. Additionally, Powell is at work on his childhood memoir, homeboy alone, slated for 2010, and The Kevin Powell Anthology (2011), which will highlight the first twenty-five years of his literary career. Indeed, he has written numerous essays, articles, and reviews through the years for publications such as Esquire, Newsweek, The Washington Post, Essence, Rolling Stone, The Amsterdam News, and Vibe, where he was a founding staff member and served as a senior writer, interviewing and profiling, among many others, General Colin Powell and the late Tupac Shakur. Most recently Powell has been a Writing Fellow for the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, as well as a Phelps Stokes Fund Senior Fellow. And Powell is currently a 2008 Democratic candidate for the United State Congress in Brooklyn, New York (http://www.kevinpowellforcongress.org).

A gifted and highly sought after public speaker, Powell has lectured on multiculturalism, building corporate responsibility, American and Black American history, the life of Dr. King, civil rights, American politics and civic engagement, sexism from a male perspective, leadership, social activism, the state of hiphop, redefining American manhood, and being Black and male in America, among other topics, at hundreds of colleges and universities, community centers, prisons, religious institutions, conferences, and festivals, as well as in corporate settings. Furthermore, Kevin Powell routinely offers his insights on a variety of matters, to TV, radio, newspaper, magazine, and internet outlets in America, and abroad.

A fixture on the pop culture landscape the past several years, Powell was a cast member on the first season of MTV's "The Real World"; hosted and produced programming for HBO and BET; written a screenplay; hosted and wrote an award-winning MTV documentary about post-riot Los Angeles; and was the Guest Curator of the Brooklyn Museum of Art's "Hip-Hop Nation: Roots, Rhymes, and Rage" which originated at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, Ohio, and of which Powell was the exhibition consultant" the first major exhibit in America on the history of hiphop.

Of paramount importance to Kevin Powell, however, is his activism. He has been a leader in some form or fashion for over twenty years, dating back to his days as a teenager at Rutgers University. He was a participant in the student-led anti-apartheid movement, the drive to end racism in South Africa. He has been at the forefront of police brutality and racial bias cases. He has worked for years around voting rights. Powell is one of the most prominent voices in the hiphop generation, and he has organized a number of concerts, mc battles, rallies, and forums that stress the use of hiphop as a tool for social change. As a result of his own past personal struggles, contradictions, growth, and a commitment to therapy and healing, Kevin has become a very outspoken critic of violence against women and girls, of violence in general, and he has been at the forefront of the movement to redefine American manhood away from sexism and violence. Powell also plays a key role in the Black male development arena, having produced, the past few years, among other things, a 10-city State of Black Men Tour, numerous Black male think tank sessions, and Black and Male in America, a 3-Day national conference (http://www.blackandmaleinamerica.org). Powell has taught, mentored, and counseled in schools, camps, prisons, and on the streets of urban America. He produces an annual holiday party and clothing drive every December in New York City that benefits the needy. And Powell was a central figure in Gulf Coast disaster relief efforts, facilitating the delivery of goods and services to the affected regions, and being a cofounder of "Katrina on the Ground," an initiative that sent over 700 college students to work in the devastated region.

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“DIGIT” PARTNERS WITH LISA LOPES FOUNDATION

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