(Brooklyn, NY)

Parks-Hall

Total Award: $50,000 over 1 year

To support Parks-Hall a multi-disciplinary arts organization that seeks to utilize the arts as a tool to uplift and unite those who have been disenfranchised and oppressed. The primary initiative of Parks-Hall is Free magazine (and CD), a free arts and culture publication that showcases independent, emerging and overlooked artists of color. Free is a glossy high quality publication that has an audience of 280,000 readers in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Oakland, Washington DC, London and Johannesburg. Free combines prose, performance and visual expression in a format that encourages artists to discuss, analyze and critique community concerns such as racism, sexism and homophobia. Readers use Free to facilitate dialogues within communities. More than 63 artists' works have been featured to date in Free. The Parks-Hall staff are educators and media makers who have worked in the commercial sector. In addition to publishing Free, they partner with other groups to develop programs for young artists/activists. Other projects include; FREE Youth Leaders, a leadership training institutes with a curriculum that includes writing, publishing, design and marketing; and Youth Voices on Lockdown, a partnership with Columbia University's Institute for Research and African American Studies that confronts the criminal justice system through the lens of the performing arts. With NCF support, Parks-Hall will implement phase 2 of its strategic plan which includes developing a fundraising plan; increase the production of Free; expand its website so that it links to the magazine; pursue other mission based partnerships with community organizations; increase volunteer participation for Youth Voices on Lockdown and establish e-commerce opportunities on its website.

Program Contribution Breakdown:
$50,000 Arts and Culture Program: Objective I, Strategy 3