Adding Black and Brown to the Rainbow
“I don’t think there’s anybody in the world, any artist out there or young person, who thought ‘One day I’m going to be the executive director of a nonprofit organization,’” mused Hued Songs Executive Artistic Director Kunya Rowley. “What happens very often, especially for marginalized communities, is that initiatives are started because there’s a void. As someone who is Black, queer and Caribbean, I really wanted to see stories that reflected my own. The Our Fund Foundation saw our work and believed in us at a time when we were still very nascent and growing as an organization. Their support has been invaluable over these formative years.”
The North Miami-native and New World School of the Arts graduate helms this non-profit company which amplifies Black culture through performances of music, dance, multimedia, and spoken word. Hued Songs makes a concentrated effort to build an ecosystem for Black and Brown LGBTQ artists and organizations by pursuing a three-prong mission of: providing opportunities where artists of color can be seen, heard and paid; ensuring access by producing performances in various locales; and building empathy in the community.
Hued Songs is now ready for its next chapter as it begins its first year of residency at the African-American Research Library and Cultural Center and as the newly named operator of a Sistrunk arts venue. Our Fund is once again fueling its evolution.
“Our most recent grant from Our Fund was to support embedding LGBTQ identity across all of our work including our organizational framework,” he explained. “Very often Black identity and LGBTQ identity exist but not in the same space. It’s deeply important to me as someone who holds both of these identities that those intersect.”
Audiences of all ages will have the opportunity to experience that connection in the inspiring new production Songs of Freedom: A Music Journey of Liberation which traces the evolution of protest, praise, and liberation music.
“One of the things that I’m really interested in is how the sounds of freedom have evolved over the course of many decades,” Rowley previewed. “This is going to include songs, spirituals, work songs, jazz, blues era, and songs from the civil rights movement. It will include four artists: one hip-hop artist, one musical theater artist, a classical soprano, and one gospel singer, along with a really incredible band. Folks can expect a 75-minute performance that is music-focused, multimedia, and educational.”
Funded by a WLW Catalyst Grant and the Community Foundation of Broward, this production is open to the public and will be seen by thousands of students through a partnership with the African-American Research Library and Cultural Center and Broward County Public Schools.
“It will feature the contributions of [trans activist] Marsha P. Johnson and Bayard Rustin, the openly gay architect of the March On Washington, Stonewall and liberation,” he said. “We are in an era where Black history and LGBTQ history is being revised and removed. I hope that this reinforces these key pieces of history and learning that young people may not be getting and they walk away with a broader sense of how this isn’t about one single decade or one single group. Groups have been fighting for freedom for decades and they’re very much linked to each other right now.”
Yet, it is just this type of programming that has caused many funders to step away from arts organizations nationwide and Hued Songs has lost support from the National Endowment for the Arts and the State of Florida.
“As an organization, we have to be steadfast in what we believe in, our values and the work that we’re doing,” Rowley said emphatically. “One of the things that still boggles my mind about Our Fund is just how plugged into the community they are. They have this ecosystem of organizations that they want to foster but also recognize there are some organizations they don’t know yet and they make sure that they get to know those folks.”
The Art of Community
“If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?”
Our community is facing significant obstacles as political movements seek to undermine our rights, erase our history and end our progress.
The art and cultural organizations that The Our Fund Foundation support are raising their voices to be heard as these woodsmen sharpen their axes.
Yet, they can be easily silenced. Their very existence is in danger without our community’s support.
Please join us by attending, volunteering, and donating as we work to sustain the artists and organizations that amplify LGBTQ voices as they share their LGBTQ stories, promote LGBTQ equality, and fight for social justice.
David Jobin
The Our Fund Foundation
President & CEO
