Philadelphia

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J Event: Made In America Festival 2014 | Philadelphia

ayminor
Made In America Philly

I can’t believe it’s that time of year again.

Not only does tomorrow mark 8 days until my birthday, it’s also my second year attending MIA in Philly!

I’m traveling down tomorrow morning for a girls’ trip with my best friend to check out the festivities. I will definitely update this post post-festival with all my thoughts on Saturday’s festivities. Can’t lie, I only feel skeptic about the lineup (which I will explain in full later), but I am trying to keep an open mind.

UPDATE:

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I had a great time in Philly, but it was exactly what I expected. Let me explain–

We hit minimal traffic getting down to Philly and the first stop was Mad 4 (Mex) on Penn’s campus for one of my favorite meals — margaritas, crispy wings, and waffle fries; highly recommended. We got to the festival a bit late (due to metered parking), so we ended up missing DJ Cassidy, but arrived just in time from Chromeo, on.

Last year, what I loved about the festival was the near-perfect curation which was enhanced by the good vibes of festival-goers. The festival featured action-packed performances from every genre and there were enough mainstream artists to cater to the very diverse crowd. Every 10 feet, I ran into people from all facets of my life — my hometown, college friends, even my coworkers.

This year, I found that my fun came mostly from the silly moments my best friend and I had interacting with the strangers we met throughout the day.

I consider myself a generalist when it comes to music — I like a little bit of everything with strong ties to R&B and pop — but I only knew two people on the bill for the day (J. Cole and Kanye); that didn’t have to be a bad thing, but I ended up being unimpressed with the other acts I saw.

One pleasant surprise was Chromeo. Though I don’t remember not one song, the duo had everyone grooving. (At one point my best friend and I ballroom danced with people we’d met 2 minutes before.)

J. Cole brought a lot of energy to his set and I loved the live band, but I was ready to kick things into high gear and his material just isn’t made for a festival-like turn up, no matter how much he tried. 2 Chainz on the other hand… I digress.

Now ‘Ye I may have slept on. We were so exhausted by the end of the night (grannies) that we chose to stay on the periphery of the crowd and therefore I don’t think we got the full experience. We were off-put by his set-list, which was mostly material from the new album (-__-) for the first 30-40 minutes.

Nonetheless, I haven’t seen Kanye perform by himself since his first album (?) so I’m glad I was able to hear my first Kanye rant.

“What we do culturally is not a joke.” – Kanye West

(I saved that in my phone.)

This year I only saw, at most, 2 people that I knew; despite being in a city with a 40+% black population, the crowd wasn’t diverse at all.

Selfish of me, but my bottom line is this — MIA planning committee, stick to one city and invest your resources in getting one bomb, diverse lineup. It also wouldn’t hurt to have 1+ female artists… like, really.

Two funny moments–

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1. I met June Ambrose! I had just saw her tweet about the festival when my best friend spotted her milling  around the ground level of the VIP section. After fangirling for 10 minutes, my friend finally made her way over to ask for a picture and June was more than willing. As I was taking the picture, her daughter ran up for the ill photobomb. June was definitely on #rockmom duty!

2.We were watching a performance, when my best friend said to me, “that girl looks exactly like Elle Varner, but it’s not her.” Just as I turned around the girl turned her back to me, so we kept trying to discreetly angle ourselves to see her face. She started to walk away (at a brisk pace), so we ended up tailing her like creepers. Eventually, we gave up because my best friend was convinced it wasn’t her. Turns out, it was her, ha!

More pics below:

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Read my tips after attending MIA last year here.

If I Could Go Back to College, I Would Love to…

ayminor

This fall, Penn students had the opportunity to sign up for an urban studies course that allowed students to work together in teams to collectively decide how to give away $100,000 to local charities in Philadelphia.

Each team was responsible for creating a mission statements, soliciting grant proposals from local nonprofits, making site visits and interviewing administrators. The $100,000 grant was provided by the Once Upon A Time foundation.

After reading the article, I was so disappointed that I was unable to take the course as an undergrad because it would have been great exposure to the nonprofit world that I have increasingly gained interest in following graduation.  Not that being a PPE major is an excuse, but I did not even know the course existed!

As I currently work on my first (of hopefully many) nonprofit projects, and as a future philanthropist (speaking it into existence), this course sounds so exciting.  Just thought I would share, in case any current/future Penn students happen to stumble across my blog — check out the article and the course when you begin to plan out your schedule for the semester — it truly sounds like a worthwhile semester-long experience!

Penn Philanthropy Class Gives Out $100K To Local Charities

University of Pennsylvania student Sharree Walls didn’t realize when she signed up for a course on philanthropy that she’d actually become a philanthropist at the end of the semester.

Then her professors announced that the class would be doling out $100,000 to local nonprofits. Walls said she was thrilled, excited – and “definitely a little nervous.”

“Obviously, it’s a huge responsibility,” said Walls, a 21-year-old urban studies major from Lombard, Ill.

The funds came from the Once Upon A Time foundation based in Fort Worth, Texas. Penn is among 13 U.S. colleges to receive a grant from the private philanthropy, which has quickly expanded the program since a successful pilot at Texas Christian University in 2010.

“Our goal is to expose students to the importance of giving back, and giving back in a thoughtful manner,” said foundation President Sam Lett.

But students must do a lot of learning, and legwork, before the checks are written.

The class was a perfect fit for Lett’s foundation, which offered Penn its first grant last year. Bauer said the money hasn’t changed how the course is taught, but “it makes all the information and ideas we share during the semester come alive.”

At Penn, an Ivy League school in Philadelphia, Doug Bauer and Greg Goldman have co-taught an urban studies course on philanthropy and nonprofits for more than a decade. Bauer is executive director at The Clark Foundation, a private philanthropy in New York; Goldman is vice president of development at the nonprofit Philadelphia Zoo.

This year’s class split up and created four “foundations” that would award $25,000 each. They had to devise mission statements, solicit grant proposals from local nonprofits, make site visits and interview administrators.

The first several weeks include lectures, discussions, readings and papers – all designed to teach students “how complex it is to nurture an urban community, and how critical the role of nonprofits and philanthropy are,” Bauer said.

Read the complete article here.