Resources:
Rylee Barnsdale's Feature Article: Ypsi-based program creates network of support for Black musicians
The Amplify Project on Facebook
The Amplify Project on Instagram
Transcription:
Rylee Barnsdale: You're listening to 89 one WEMU. I'm Rylee Barnsdale, and this is On the Ground Ypsi. Local musicians were hit particularly hard during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when performing live was impossible. And focusing on creative endeavors fell by the wayside due to financial stress. Ypsilanti's own Grove Studios and Ann Arbor's Leon Speakers, though, saw a way to uplift artists during that time. And as their Amplify Project enters its fourth year, its founders are exploring more ways to keep the local music scene thriving. Amplify Project co-founder Doctor Rod Wallace is here with me today to talk about what the Amplify Project is and how they are shifting focus as they prepare for their next season. Hi, Doctor Wallace! Thanks so much for being here.
Dr. Rod Wallace: Hey, it's great to be here!
Rylee Barnsdale: So, for those who may not know, the Amplify Project is a nonprofit with a mission to provide resources and access to African American musical artists to encourage free expression untethered by social inequity. Launched back in 2020, when I'm sure you are also having your own pandemic struggles, whatever they may have been, what drove you to start up a nonprofit during that time?
Dr. Rod Wallace: Well, during the pandemic--actually, before the pandemic, I was studying hip-hop as part of my doctoral studies here at EMU. And what I was looking to do was to create something that would be a little bit more of a systemic piece of growth in the area, as opposed to a one-off kind of situation where maybe I started working with an artist or we start working with a particular venue. So, I had that in the back of my mind. And I was working closely with Grove to coordinate educational programs. And Grove was approached by Leon Speakers and, in particular, Noah Kaplan and Maia Evans, who is now the co-founder of the Amplify Project, about, after the death of George Floyd, to find ways to be able to mobilize resources to African Americans here in Washtenaw County to provide them with opportunity. So, what we found was a couple of things. We found that there were resources and opportunities that African Americans were not receiving in the arts and in arts administration. And we also found that the nonprofit world or the service world was lacking in community engagement--it was lacking volunteers. And so, the initial program of the Amplify Project was the Amplify Fellowship, which provided local musicians with production, recording, and engineering support, in exchange for community service. So, they would spend a certain amount of community service every month, and they would receive access to that via funding from Leon, initially. Leon is our legacy funder, whereas Grove also provided the space for them to be able to do it. So, it was a great partnership, and we began to see that the artists were doing a fantastic job of making their own music in their own image. They had great socially constructed or socially founded ideas on them to speak to things like equity, to speak to things like the need for identity and empowerment in this space. So, we found that they were able to make the music that they wanted to make, but they needed more infrastructure. So, we said, "Well, why not get involved with people who can assist with that infrastructure more specifically to get their music heard, to grow their platform, so on and so forth." So, in addition to working with our fellows, we started to work with this network of businesses that was in Washtenaw County that were supporting artists. And what we also found was, hey, the fellows had an interest in building their own businesses as well. So, that's kind of where we are now in terms of supporting them and creating those businesses.
Rylee Barnsdale: And as far as that first season, as the fellowships are called throughout the website, do you feel like you reached that goal or that mission to amplify these artists?
Dr. Rod Wallace: We did. And I think looking at it four years later, we're going into our fifth year in September. So, what we see is that those initial artists have truly went on to create their own imprint. Kenyatta Rashon is now working with major label artists and touring nationally with different major label artists. Dani Darling has built an outstanding platform for herself, musically and otherwise. London Beck has chosen to construct their own recording house--their own recording and production platform--to be able to work with and support and nurture artists because of the skills that were developed and owned as a result of being a part of this fellowship. And they all came to us with the skill sets that they're using now. We just gave them the opportunity to work together, to learn from each other, to explore that time in their lives and to really see what was possible. So, we're really proud of what they've done and what the rest of our fellows have done as well.
Rylee Barnsdale: Obviously, music is really at the core of this project--of this nonprofit. But like you mentioned too, these artists are also going beyond just making music. You mentioned, too, London Beck has a recording house and is always wanting to do these other things that are entangled with music, but maybe not necessarily always just making their own. And I think that's a really fascinating way to, support these artists where they're at. And it's not just you coming in and saying, "Hey, you're going to make an album, and this is what it's going to sound like."
Dr. Rod Wallace: Absolutely, absolutely! And I think it goes professionally and personally. Yes, they they've grown professionally. But one thing that we always speak to them about is the fact that we want you to be able to make the music that you want to make in this space, untethered by anything, but we also want you to consider where you are in your lives, because this time is going to capture that. During the first season, Kenyatta Rashon had a baby, and she captured her pregnancy via her project. Just as an example, one of our subsequent fellows, Lorian Janine from our second season, she had just graduated from college and was navigating, "Okay, now I'm an adult--quote unquote. And what does this entail?" So, we like to think that not only are we helping them grow in terms of being musicians, we're also trying to provide them with some transferable skills that they can use in other spaces. But also, we're helping them navigate change. You know, life is consistently about change, and we like to think that as they reflect on the music that they made during this time, it can kind of give them a sense of how far they've come.
Rylee Barnsdale: This is WEMU's On the Ground Ypsi. I'm Rylee Barnsdale, talking with Amplify Project co-founder Doctor Rod Wallace. So, Doctor Wallace, you mentioned some of the changes that have taken place throughout Amplify's course: things like helping to provide more infrastructure or help in those kinds of realms when it comes to making music professionally. And I'm curious about how the program will move forward kind of with this new focus. Are there any other updates or changes we can expect to see from you guys?
Dr. Rod Wallace: So, we've done a lot of things. We've tried a lot of things over the course of the last four years. We've been curators. We're looking to continue curating events in conjunction with community agencies that are looking for music to have an impact on their initiatives. So, those kind of things, because now we have a network of musicians across the complete landscape of music. And it's not just our fellows. We have artists like Lauren Blackford, who is a brilliant singer/songwriter that has the ability to do some things acoustically in some spaces. We also have DJ TJ. We also have Buff-one. We also have these are people who we can call out and say, "Hey, this kind of event is going on. This is what they're looking for. And would you be interested?" Also, in conjunction with our partnerships with Washtenaw Community College and the Entrepreneurship Center, we're really trying to work with artists who are musicians, but they're also entrepreneurs. So, giving them the ability and the training to be able to create businesses that can nurture the ecosystem of music here in Southeast Michigan. And our hope is that we can build our own little Nashville in a way where artists may be able to come into our space, and they can get what they need a la carte. Because these days, independent musicians, they all have varying levels of skill. So, some are looking for social media support. Some are looking for videography. Some are looking for knowledge and information about publishing and protecting their IP. We want to be able to for people to be able to come into that and be able to say, "Here. You have access to all of these things as you need. But also we want you to know that there's an initiative here in town called Black Men Read, and we would love for you to work with Black Men Read. And if you do that, then maybe we can work something out with these businesses to support you." That's kind of where we are in terms of the building and development of a co-op model and also extending, I should say, the musical imprint of Washtenaw County from childhood all the way up through adulthood. So, hopefully, working with youth in some nuanced ways to be able to breed their interests, but also kind of create like a pipeline that moves all the way up through being a published recording artist. You know, we've done some work with Formula 734. And what we've seen in working with them or working with the artists associated with that, they've all been steadily moving and growing into different spaces as well. So, the goal is to create a co-op model per se, almost like a unified set of businesses that give musicians and artists in the space multiple resources to be able to get things done in a very organized way.
Rylee Barnsdale: Was this co-op model, kind of, what you saw Amplify becoming from day one? Or is this something that kind of came about naturally as you heard the needs of the musicians in the area?
Dr. Rod Wallace: I would say it came about naturally. I think that we took a look at what modern music business is and how many musicians are leaning towards remaining independent. The days of creating a demo tape and getting signed by Sony Records or whatever has kind of gone away. Our target is right now is how do we assist musicians with first creating a connection to their communities in ways that are very authentic because that is something that still exists on a grand scale is that, especially in small niche markets like we have, the connectivity with the community has to be very firm. And that's one element of it. Then it's like, "Okay. Well, how do we help this person grow their social media imprint? How do we help this person from a performance standpoint improve?" Because that is something that sets people apart. So, it's one of those things where we learned over time from our fellows about what their needs were. I mean, we could buy them studio time until the cows came home. But they didn't need that. They needed marketing. They needed A and R. They needed exposure. They needed those kind of things. So, it came about naturally. But it's also a product of a broader climate involving music, where music is being bought and sold in ways that is very different from 20 years ago. So, we're kind of being driven by the the market dynamics, but also, we have some perception data that shows us what works and what doesn't.
Rylee Barnsdale: This is WEMU's On the Ground Ypsi. I'm talking with Doctor Rod Wallace, co-founder of the Ypsi nonprofit, The Amplify Project. So, Doctor Wallace, each Amplify season, like you mentioned, has featured new and different local artists whose work spans a variety of different musical genres. But how do they continue to affect the program once their season concludes? Is there a continued relationship there once the album is out, let's say?
Dr. Rod Wallace: Absolutely. I just think about how our fellows have been so gracious with us in a number of different ways. First of all, one of the conditions of being a part of the fellowship is that I get to serve as executive producer of each project. And now, under my own bill, I have this set of works that are all so very different, and they give me the opportunity to get my hands into all kinds of different genres. And I think that one thing that they do is they remain a part of what we are doing and a part of our planning. We have a listening party coming up in a couple weeks. It's kind of a private thing, but we're going to listen to the new music that everybody has been working on, and we're going to talk about this co-op model, and we're going to talk about what do they find that they need. So, they're actually kind of like an advisory board for us as well. Also, we encounter all kinds of opportunities, musically and otherwise, that, again, we're instantly able to say, "Hey, here's an opportunity for you to do this. Here's an opportunity for you to do that." We have a fantastic relationship with the Ann Arbor Summer Festival, for example. They have done a fantastic job of highlighting our artists as not only being very talented individuals, but also being homegrown talent that has really done the work. Again, in the same token, we look to them for guidance. They are our mentors to some of our students who go through our arts management capstone class that's at Washtenaw Community College. They are key figures in the community and key figures with organizations that give us access to their experiences and their information that allows us to continue to grow. So, they are the first members, essentially, of our co-op model because they have so much to give, and they've done so many fantastic things already. And what I love about it, is every single one of them, not only musically, but in terms of what they do as art, every one of them is so absolutely unique, and it gives us a really broad brush to understand what artists need and what kind of support we can provide as people who want to see the arts continue to grow in this space.
Rylee Barnsdale: And if, say, someone is listening to this right now, and they're hearing about what The Amplify Project is about. They're hearing about the successes of the folks that have been able to take advantage of these resources. What would you want to say to them if they are thinking to themselves, "Hey, this is something that I could maybe benefit from. This is something that a musician in my life could benefit from." What is a message you would want to impart to those folks?
Dr. Rod Wallace: I would definitely tell them to hit us up. Let us know. Come to amplify-fellowship.org and drop us a message. Let us know what you have going on. It's a lot broader than just those artists who were our original fellows. We're interested in connecting all the types of folks. We encounter deejays. We encounter people who want to do session work. And we instantly have the ability to kind of be dot connectors for them. We are continuing to look for artists-in-residence and to give them exposure to the things specifically that they need. We have great relationships with people who I talked about, people who are engaged and understanding about publishing and IP. And Kenyatta is a fantastic consultant when it comes to performance. But also, we have Gwyneth Hayes. Gwyneth Hayes has a private practice for clinical therapy where she's seeking to potentially work specifically with artists. So, if you are an artist that might need that kind of support, there's that too. So, come into amplify-fellowship.org and check out some of the things that we've done. Also hit us up on social media. On Instagram, we are Amplify Washtenaw. Go in there. Just send us a DM. Let us know what it is you need. And we're looking forward to making more announcements about how people can get involved as we move forward. And also, you can always donate at amplify-fellowship.org as well. We are a nonprofit. And shouts out to, again, Leon speakers who were our legacy funders, as well as the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation, as well as CultureSource, as well as Creative Washtenaw, as well as our fantastic partners at Washtenaw Community College, as well as EMU. All of these different entities have sewn into us so much. And we're just looking forward to continuing to make an impact through music.
Rylee Barnsdale: Doctor Wallace, I want to thank you so much for coming in today to tell us more about the Amplify Project. I am sure you are beyond excited to see how things continue to grow in the future. You said that there is that listening party coming up. I, for one, am very excited to hear the new music that comes out from this current season! Thank you again!
Dr. Rod Wallace: Absolutely! Yep! And Danny Darling will have music coming out soon as well as Kenyatta, as well as London Beck, as well as Ki5. And Baddie Brooks just was the grand marshal for the Pride parade in New York City, where she is in a movie that's going to be coming out, produced by Elevation Youth Corps. And we're just extremely proud of everything that everybody is doing. So, just look out for us. We try to do the work and be the the paddling feet under the water to a certain degree, but just continue to support. I would not only say support our musicians and our artists, but support all of the local artists. Because this is where the real fruit is when it comes to the creation of art. And we need your support. So, thank you very much!
Rylee Barnsdale: For more information on today's topic and links to the full article, visit our website at wemu.org. On the Ground Ypsi is brought to you in partnership with Concentrate Media. I'm Rylee Barnsdale, and this is your community NPR station 89 one WEMU FM, Ypsilanti.
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