Short Summary
Hi, my name is Michael Britton, and I’m the current director of the Bluefields Sound System community recording studio and multimedia Center, the first of it's kind on the south autonomous region of Nicaragua. I was born in Bluefields, Nicaragua and lived in the United States of America for over 15 years. Shortly after returning from the United States Marine Corps I returned to Bluefields, and what was supposed to be a 3 months trip to plant the seeds for a couple projects with a non-profit corporation I founded named “One Earth-One People-One Love Inc. (1EPL, Inc.) in the state of Georgia. Now I've been in Bluefields for 3 years, and each day since I came back, I’ve been learning more than I ever had. I came to know of the richness and uniqueness of our cultural heritage like never before, such as our Ethnic diversity, our traditional musical composition, and other artistic expressions that could have a major impact in our society.
In 2005, two young motivated Americans by the names of Edwin Reed and Alexander Scott, began promoting young talents and local artist from a generation that is being left in a distant memory for most, talents that were undervalued for decades. They managed to raise funds for their cause and were able to move our communities in ways they haven’t moved for nearly 30 years; Musical albums were produced, archiving new and authentic content from artists like “papa Bantam, Kaliboom, Mango Ghost, Sabu the Catty man,” among others. Unfortunately, the Bluefields Sound System’s grand presentation began to fade as Edwin and Alexander began to face the difficulties of the challenges in sustainable cultural promotion on this region of the world; funds ran low, and financial difficulties forced them to go seeking for a space to relocate the studio. In attempt to execute a project in collaboration with the regional government, in 2012 the regional government of the South Autonomous Caribbean Coast or Nicaragua granted them a space in a building that was funded to have a community space, in which the only operation was a government owned radio station. They allowed BSS to work under our own bureaucracy, while respecting a basic operation schedule, and so the studio began producing once again, but this time it was more accessible for the general community, and not just selected local artists.
The project with the regional government suddenly discontinued due to unknown reasons, and within a year the only fully capacitated producer and musician had to leave in search for a better opportunity, so once again the studio faced the threat of closing. By this time Edwin had left and Alex was about to leave to study for his master’s degree, leaving a few motivated artists with no administrative knowledge to continue the operation of the studio. This is the point at which I began to volunteer at the Bluefields Sound System Studio. Shortly after I began, the challenges rose again, as members of the regional government began to make attempts to take over our equipment, and so force us to close our doors. we fought a two-year battle while serving our communities as an accessible resource that otherwise was not available in our region. We became part of the violence prevention committee in our region, we worked hand in hand with the regional youth secretary using information communication technology to promoted cultural awareness by executing projects that educated society of the richness and value of our cultural heritage, and the importance to advocate for a cleaner, safer, and more productive culture of peace. Unfortunately, we were forced to find another location, because government officials needed another office space. As a result, we were facing the threat of losing a couple of the computers that we have been using for over 5 years, which are among our most valuable resource to do our work.
We managed to rent a suitable space that met the conditions for us to operate again as a community recording studio and multimedia center. Unfortunately, we were economically crippled by relocating. Our overhead cost for rent are more than we are able to generate having a limited staff that works on a volunteer basis. Over the past three years we have been designed a project based on our organization's operational model, of which with your support we can begin full operation of the project Caribbean Culture Center for Arts & Music by the end February of 2017.
the following videos are samples among many other kinds of products that we will be producing...
· Why this initiative is important for me
Culture is the arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively. Culture can be viewed as characteristics and knowledge of a particular group of people, defined by everything from language, religion, cuisine, social habits, music and arts, and when those aspects of culture are being lost an inevitable unbalance occurs that cause changes that may alter land, customs, and even the people them selves will have to adapt and eventually lose valuable aspects of that culture. When the culture of a people has been the mechanism of survival for thousands of years, it is imperative . Therefor to promote a sustainable culture of peace, it is imperative to rescue and preserve those aspects of culture that are being lost in our region.
Music is an expressive art of a cultural identity of our people, the lack of infrastructure and resource has limited the practice of that art for over 3 decades, slowly disappearing that unique identity.
Operating as a Community Recording Studio & Multimedia Center, Bluefields Sound System is the first Community Center of it’s kind. We have been a resource for society since 2005. Our works are mainly in the areas of Communication, Culture, and Youth. We are here to rescue and preserve those cultural values...
The Bluefields Sound System's Caribbean Cultural Center for Arts and Music project is a participatory development initiative aimed at providing Technology, Communication, Media production training, Arts & Music as an innovative and sustainable solution for capacity building of cultural tourism in isolated and economically disadvantaged indigenous and Afro-descendent communities.
What your contribution will help achieve:
On the Autonomous regions of Nicaragua there is an immense fountain of natural resources, including talented artistic youths. Your contribution will help the Bluefields Sound System community recording studio and multimedia center to successfully execute the CCCAM initiatives for a year period, which will directly employ 5 skilled and talented member of our society, at least 20 people will be employed through commission based collaboration, and over a hundred youths will be trained on how to promote their skills and talent in their corresponding market within the first 3 months. Your contributions will help promote the sustainable development of our communities; by securing a staff for a year, BSS will launch the CCCAM initiative at its capacity and within a year we will have the CCCAM initiative replicated and put into operation in collaboration with communal leaders in 5 different communities in our region, creating means for job opportunities and rescuing and preserving our cultural heritage.
Contributions will help activate all four components of the project:
BSS Community Recording Studio (the only recording studio of it's kind):
This is a community recording studio where members of our society have access to acquire new skills and develop new talent, and exercise their abilities while learning valuable life-skills through music writing, composition, and overall expressions.
It’s open for inspired artist and professional artist alike, and it’s equipped with all necessary tools to compose, produce, and promote their music.
The Bluefields School of Music (Caribbean cultural music school):
This is where we will provide traditional and non-traditional instrument and vocal lessons. Most of the historical education of our musical expressions will be taught here. Music teachers will be the last living legendaries of our traditional music.
SunRise Drama Club (SunRise DC):
This is first drama/acting program of it's kind in over 30 years.
Participants will learn the art of drama and acting, and how to implement those skills to performing arts and cultural expression.
Innovative Tech-Center (ITC): This is a Multimedia computer lab where participants will have access to ICT workshops, computer courses, marketing workshops, language learning courses, audio & video production courses, and access to global information of technology.
What We Need & What You Get
We need to raise funds to continue renting the space where we have rebuilt our studio and have began executing our programs and services to provide a financial support (honorarium) for our volunteers in the administrative and operational structure, funds to implement projects designed and ready for execution, and to refurbish or purchase equipment to successfully execute the Caribbean Culture Center for Arts & Music project.
As a result of your contribution, we will assure to keep you updated throughout the year by providing you with a free registration to our newsletter, keeping our facebook page updated daily, we will send you postcards signed by local artists most recognized, we will provide access to free download codes to download our latest productions, and also we will dedicate activities and initiatives to donors among other perks.
If we reach our goal, we will fully operate as a caribbean Cultural Center for Arts & Music; of which will have direct presence in 5 communities on the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua.
The Impact
In economically disadvantaged communities across the globe, it is difficult or nearly impossible to gain access to resources that may simplify or simply give a chance to community members to augment the efforts to better the conditions in their communities. Bluefields Sound System, through the CCCAM initiatives is making available the resources that help community members of the South Autonomous Region of Nicaragua to market their artistic resources. Music is transcendent, and the messages in music can influence emotional states and behavior, and as local artist get a fear chance to project their music to the world, it may be the song of one of them that touches you in a moment most necessary. The musical composition in our region is more than just music, it's the only way in which we record our history, because in our music, we tell current events and talk about people or places most influential in our communities. Having the studio's doors open is as having a system that will archive our history. Because we teach multimedia production, we have the initiative to begin producing the first visual productions in our region by people of our region. We will be countering most negative influence brought in through media, with positive influence from our reality.
In the past we have executed many projects, one of our most successful project was the production of an album from the Bluefields school of Music, which was a byproduct of the first music school of it's kind in Bluefields since more than 30 years ago. The album featured legendary artist from the 70’s and 80’s and young artist of this generation in attempt to bridge a connection that can rescue our traditional music with this generation. We fundraised to print the album on Kickstarter and were funded more than 100% of our goal for that project.
Another one of our success have been in the late 2014… May of 2014, we hosted an initiative that promoted a cultural exchange between a reggae band from the New Mexico and our local Maypole Music. The project was executed in the form of a competition between young artist of the coast, whom had to compose new verses to accompany the chorus of our traditional maypole music from the 70’s as an attempt to once again bridge that generational gap in our traditional musical composition. The top 3 winners of the competition were granted the opportunity to participate in 3 concerts in three isolated communities on the South Autonomous region of Nicaragua, accompanied by the reggae band Reviva. A CD album was also produced from this event, the album contained the songs of all the participating local artist. The impact of this event is still resounding on the streets of Bluefields today as community members pass you by with their event shirt on and as the music is played on the radios in the month of celebration every may. By the end of our first year we will have developed a community network between islated indigenous and Afro-descendants in the South Autonomous Region of the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua Nicaragua
This video was made by one of SIT study abroad student visit to the Bluefields Sound System Studios in early 2016. The only inaccurate
Risks & Challenges
We have been faced with many challenges, but we never gave up, and we will never give up. Our organization worked on "zero" funding for years. All of our teem members are volunteers working for a cause. We sustained ourselves providing professional services in the areas that we were teaching. unfortunately that was not a steady stream of income to maintain a full staff to operate according to our full capacity, and that have been our greatest challenge in the past. Especially since the government had limited us to a work schedule that only allowed us to provide free community service, leaving us with no time for our sustainability model to be executed.
If we were to reach our goal in this fund raiser, the main challenge we will face is the fact that we will be limited to the number of communities in which we will have a presence during the first year. There is a high demand for our presence in all of our communities, unfortunately there is hardly any support and when available, it's minimal, but they are willing to work with us once we have the financial support to back up our projects.
The Rhythm of Our Culture short documentary
Other Ways You Can Help
Just by reading this information you have contributed, because this organization is a social work most needed in our communities and across the globe. If you were able to contribute, we thank you tremendously, and if you were not able to contribute economically, or by donating equipments, we ask you to please don't forget to use the Indiegoogo share tools!
Spread the news!!!