What happened.
In the period between May 13 - May 18 of this year, a low-pressure storm system called Cyclone Tamara dumped 3 months worth of rainwater on communities in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Croatia. The water broke through the dams and levees, washing away everything in it's path. 2,000 mudslides completely destroyed entire villages and the towns of Maglaj, Krupanj, Obrenovac, Doboj, and Gunja virtually disappeared under the flood waters. The human suffering has been staggering: over 70 people lost their lives, 900,000 had to be evacuated, and over 85,000 are still living in temporary shelters across the Balkans.
Obrenovac, Serbia directly after the May 2014 floods
Displaced persons taking shelter in the Hall of Pioneers in Belgrade
What we are doing.
As a group of
concerned global citizens, we have come together to form "Blues for the
Balkans" to show our solidarity with the Balkan people and to raise
awareness about the Balkan floods. Luke Winslow King saw some of the pictures I
was posting about the floods on Facebook and reached out to me offering his
support. Herein lies the power of social media and crowdfunding: we don't have
to wait around for the existing media and power structure to inform us about
what's going on or to direct our action. With the internet, the knowledge and
power to change the world is only ever a few clicks away.
We all remember how
devastated New Orleans was after Katrina, and how the city and its people are
still in a process of recovery. After many discussions with Luke Winslow
King about Katrina, the Balkans, and history of blues music, the "Blues
for the Balkans" idea was born. Our goal is to create a cultural and
musical connection between what happened in New Orleans 9 years ago with
Hurricane Katrina and what is happening in the Balkans now as a result of the
massive flooding cause by Cyclone Tamara.
With your help, we
will be raising $5,000 to send the Luke Winslow King band from New
Orleans to play a free, 6-day Flood Relief Benefit Tour across
Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Croatia from July 27 - Aug 2. With another
$5,000, we hope to film a documentary about the "Blues
for the Balkans" tour, the proceeds of which will all go to support the
flood relief efforts of our non-profit sponsors.
The
Tour.
We will be picking up
Luke and Esther in Brescia, Italy on the morning of July 27th after the conclusion of their Italian tour. The "Blues for the
Balkans" tour schedule continues as follows:
July 27, 2014 (AM): pick-up Luke Winslow-King and Esther Rose after the conclusion of their Italian tour in Brescia, Italy
July 27, 2014 (PM): Zagreb, Croatia- show @ Meštrovićev Paviljon at 8 PM
July 28, 2014: Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina- show @ Cafe-Bar "Opera" at 9:30 PM
July 29, 2014: Banja Luka (Republika Srpska), Bosnia and Herzegovina
July 30, 2014 (AM): visit Doboj, (Republika Srpska), Bosnia and Herzegovina
July 30, 2014 (PM): Belgrade, Serbia - meet & greet + informal jam session with local blues legends @ the "Vox Blues Cafe" in Banovo Brdo at 11 pm
July 31. 2014: Belgrade, Serbia - show @ the "BITEF Art Theater" under the shadow of the Kalemegdan Castle at 21:00 PM
August 1. 2014: Novi Sad, Serbia - Grand Finale Concert @ Ivan Firchie's "Think Thank Studios" at 7 PM
**We reserve the right to alter the
details/locations of our tour dates - though we will try our utmost best to
not change anything once announced. In any case, we remain committed to playing
6 free concerts in the Balkans during this time period. We will keep our
process transparent and keep your apprised of any changes throughout the
campaign period.
Who am I.
My name is Jugoslav
Kapetanovic and I have been deeply affected by the Balkan Floods of 2014. I am
a 29-year DC native and naturalized American citizen, but I was born in 1985 in
what was then called "Yugoslavia" and still have much of my family
living in the Balkans. My parents came to Washington, DC with my sister and me
in 1989 as diplomats, and when the war broke out in the Balkans, we found a new
home in America.
Despite growing up in
Washington, DC, I have kept up with my Balkan roots, speaking
Bosnian/Serbian/Croatian at home with my family and taking time to volunteer
and live in the region. After my junior year of high school, I had the
privilege of going to Sarajevo, Bosnia on a travel scholarship to work at the
SOS Kinderdorf Children's Center. My experiences with the children in Sarajevo
prompted me to form a Harvard College student group called "Scholarships
for Peace", offering travel and study scholarships to mixed-ethnic groups
of high school students from Bosnia. I had the great pleasure of living in
Belgrade, Serbia for 7 months right before my grandmother died, learning more
about my background and heritage.
Some of my closest
friends are in the Balkans, and they have been in my thoughts and prayers every
day since this disaster occurred. There has been relatively scant media
coverage of this catastrophe, and most people I have spoken to in Washington,
DC have had no idea about the extent of the human suffering and environmental
damage as a result of the floods. It is safe to say that this is the worst
environmental and public health disaster the Balkan region has ever seen, and
that the recovery will take years to come. Here is what we would like to do.
Our Partners & What We've Done Already.
Coming into the Balkan
tour as a part of the Indiegogo campaign, we staged four introductory concerts
- the first two at on June
6 and June 24 at Dukem Ethiopian Restaurant in Washington DC from which we
raised $1.065 for the FondB92 Svilajnac Kindergarten Project; the second two to
launch the Indiegogo campaign on July
1, 2014 at the historic HR-57 Jazz Club in DC, and an Indiegogo Launch Party in
NYC with Kendrick Lytes, Dante Alston, Shelton Williams, and Javier Starks of the “One Million Strong tour”.
The $1,065 for
Svilajnac Kindergarten Project, will go to restore the destroyed school building,
along with furniture and equipment used by kids and kindergarten teachers in
the Serbian town of Svilajnac.
This donation is made
in partnership with Fond B92, a Serbian relief organization that is
spearheading a number of ongoing Balkan Flood Relief projects. We have chosen
to work with Fond B92 for a number of reasons: 1) their proven track record of
humanitarian work 2) the great pains they have taken to make sure that aid
dollars are going directly to the people in need 3) their focus on the needs of
children and 4) a personal and professional relationship with the
leadership of the organization.
In Washington, DC we
have had the pleasure of working with Kameron Vollin-Reed and Shelton Williams,
the core members of the blues group "KVR & The Prototype". Kam
and Shelton were the headliners for our second "Blues for the
Balkans" concert at Dukem, and at HR-57 Jazz Club.
What We Need from You.
It is important to
point out that Luke Winslow King and Esther Rose do not expect to be
compensated for their performances. I have taken two months off work to make
this project happen and am not expecting to make any money through these
efforts. All the proceeds of our complete documentary film project will be
going directly to Fond B92, and any donations we receive at the free concerts
themselves will likewise go to the Fond B92 accounts.
The $5,000 we are
looking to raise will cover the cost of food, travel, lodging, and promotion
for the "Blues for the Balkans" tour. The breakdown is as follows:
$2,000 air travel
$1,000 lodging
$500 food
$500 car rental
$500 gas
$500 promotions,
printing
We will keep very
careful track of all our expenditures (the balance sheet will be available upon
request at the conclusion of the tour), and any money not spent on tour
expenses will be donated directly to the Fond B92 relief fund.
In the context of this
new age of "crowdfunding", all we need to raise $5,000 for
this concert tour is for you and me and 500 of our friends
to give $10 each. And if we can get another 500 of our friends to give $10,
we can make a documentary.
Risks
& Challenges.
We know we are working
with a pretty aggressive timetable. 1-month to fully fund and plan an
international concert tour is a heady undertaking, but we have put a lot of
thought and effort into the logistical planning and believe our goals are
attainable.
What we've got going
for us: I have excellent networks in the Balkans from my time I lived in
Sarajevo and Belgrade. I am familiar with the geography. I speak the language.
I have a networks of friends (particularly in the media/arts community) and
family that is fully supportive of our efforts. My great friend Serge
Radosavljevic, is a professional artist and filmmaker, and he will be donating
his personal time in the making of the "Blues for the Balkans"
documentary if we can pay for his travel and equipment costs. Vojin Mitrovic, a
family friend and a community liaison for Fond B92 in Belgrade, Serbia, has
already put in many hours of work in preparation for our Indiegogo
launch.
We have also teamed up
with Bill Cunningham at National Crowdfunding Service, a crowdfunding
consultancy based out of Washington, DC. Bill has put in countless hours of
work helping us plan and strategize our Indiegogo campaign, and with his help
(and yours), I believe we will be able to hit our funding goals.
I have personally
taken the risk of leaving my job and not working for the next two months to
make this project happen, without any guarantee and finding immediate work when
I return to DC again. I have done this because I believe "Blues for
the Balkans" is something worth doing, and something worth doing well.
With your help, we will be able to send the music of New Orleans to the
Balkans, to raise awareness for the plight and the resiliency of the people of
the Balkans.
Other Ways You Can Help.
As you consider making
a donation to our campaign, also consider reposting/retweeting/sharing this
campaign with the people in your social networks.
We are willing to
accept any sort of in-kind donation you are willing to make. For example, you
could donate frequent flier miles to cover our air travel expenses, or hotel
points to cover lodging. We are also looking to partner with corporate sponsors
who would be
willing to cover the cost of our tour van rental and food for the 6 day
tour. For more information about corporate sponsorship or how to donate
in-kind, please send me (Jugo) and email at bluesforthebalkans@gmail.com.
And for more information about the
tour, "Like" us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/BluesfortheBalkans and follow
us on Twitter @Blues4Balkans.
Crew.
Balkans Team Members (14 members)
Artists: Luke Winslow King & Esther Rose
Producer: Jugo Kapetanovic
Executive Producer: Jelena Rashic
Director of Documentary Film: Serge
Radosavljevic
Director of Operations/Non-Profit Manager:
Vojin Mitrovic
Director of Communications: Milica Milosevic
Online Marketing and PR: Branko Milovanovic
Social Media Strategy, Balkans: Marko Crljen
Camerman #1: Dragan Djordjevic
Camerman #2: Predrag Misic
Sound Operator #1: Bojan Palikuca
Grip # 1: Sasha Djordjevic
Tour Guide, Sarajevo: Amir Galijasevic
DC Team Members: (16 members)
Business Manager/Accounting: Tom Carr
Donor Relations, Washington, D.C.: Zachary
Dugan
Social Media Strategy, US: Shannon Emmerick
Crowdfunding Strategy and Consulting: Bill
Cunningham & Howard Williams
Event Planning/Promotions: Jonathan Miller II
& Eloise Lepesqueur
Interns: Riqi, Frank, and Heather
Artists: Kameron Vollin Reed & Shelton
Williams aka "KVR and the Prototype",
Kendrick Lytes, Dante Alston, and Charles
Fenwick
Band Manager: Cheri Vollin