Building strong foundations and international partnerships

Building is continual - The power will all poses to lay foundations of celebrating humanity beyond time - much love to In Place of War for seeding the force of creatives around the world to amplify the voice and power of #CHANGE

MOVING BEYOND THE MUSIC

TO PRODUCERS, ARTIST, INSTRUMENTALISTS AND INNOVATIVE CREATIVE LEADERS.......YOU'RE ALL INVITED. FROM THE 23RD OF NOV. TO THE 24TH......@ THE Bavubuka Dynasty HQ.

2016 is yet another year of exploring the collaborative spirit and energy to continue supporting and encouraging young creative artists to lead through their innovative authentic Ideas and vision. OBUMU (UNITY) family and Bavubuka Allstarz Foundation would love to take this moment to Invite all dedicated young leaders and artists to come and learn through experience and sharing as we host a great team from In Place of War on their mission to build a creative movement; a networked and powerful platform that allows voices to be heard and opportunities to be created right across the world, in zones of violence and disruption.
What IPOW is achieving worldwide:
• IPOW Academies support artists who have been held back from realising their ambitions through the lack of equipment, facilities and support.
• Our ground breaking creative entrepreneurial programme is empowering the world’s most marginalized communities to create sustainable organisations and social change through their creativity.
• We provide artists with a larger international platform to tell the human stories of war, curating work for a range of institutions, festivals, galleries and spaces.
Vision and Purpose
• To support artists and creative communities living in sites of war, revolution, conflict, human rights abuse and marginalization across the world
• To support a global network to enable artists, creatives and others to connect, share practice, promote their work and collaborate
• Harness creativity as a tool for social change, enabling grassroots pathways to sustainable living through creative education programmes
• Provide safe places to practice and develop skills, build capacity and produce cultural content
• Support international production work, including events, festivals and collaborations and celebrate work produced
• Demonstrate the value of the arts to public space, public life and public and policy debate
This invitation is open to those committed and dedicated artists who aspire to change and transform their communities through their mediums of expression. It will indeed be our pleasure to host you at the Bavubuka Dynasty HQ come Nov. 23rd.

Join us as we continue to UNIFY this powerful medium to strengthen our industry with knowledge and resources designed for generational Impact. for more information on participating please contact The UG - Hiphop - Archivist/Celebrate your History  at 0775-961-079

Obumu Media Collective

By Scott Macklin
This video is a testament and document of the ground changing work of the participating youth in the Obumu Media Collective.

In March of 2014, Communication Leadership's Scott Macklin and Jonathan Cunningham (EMP) traveled to Kampala, Uganda to partner with the Bavubuka Foundation to create the Obumu Media Lab dedicated to hip-hop and digital media education. While there, we connected with and facilitating workshops for youth dedicated to community-centric storytelling, hip-hop journalism, video-editing and entrepreneurship.

In July, we partnered with One Vibe Africa to co-presents ZIWA, a collective multi-media experience (photography, video, music and painting) providing an intimate experience of the vibrant culture, people and landscape of sister countries, Kenya and Uganda. Inspired by the continuity of creativity of East African youth, this event at the 2312 Gallery showcases photos and art created by professionals alongside equally captivating images shot by youth. ZIWA is Kiswahili for "lake" and in this instance, represents Lake Victoria, which directly connects Kenya and Uganda.

A film by Scott Macklin and with additional footage provided by the Obumu Media Collective and What's Good 206.

Artists Collaborate to Bring More Art to African Youth

Originally published by What's Good  206
                    
Photographers Meg Stacker, Scott Macklin (Obumu Collective), and Jonathan Cunningham have collaborated with One Vibe-Africa, in Kenya and the Bavabuka Foundation, in Uganda to do an art showcase, Ziwa, at art gallery 2312; off 2nd Ave in downtown Seattle. The showcase brings awareness to their recent works and introduces their newest projects that they are working on. The grand opening of the showcase featured some performances from Kenyan and Ugandan artists, as well as the foundations founders and photographers briefly speaking. The art will be displayed all month, and all the proceeds go towards strengthening both foundations art programs for the youth. In this episode, we got a look inside both foundations and One Vibe- Africa's newest photo project.

Shot and edited by: Austin Williams, Nirali Shah

LIFESTYLE OF THE URBAN INDIGENOUS

Orignally published at Merita International October 31, 2012 
LifeSTYLE of the Urban Indigenous

Bright ethnic prints of tangerine, fuchsia, aqua and gold contrasted against neutral tweeds, burlap hemp and bark cloth graced the runway as Ugandan fashion designer Ras Kasozi’s collection ‘Urban Indigenous’ struck Vancouver Fashion Week. This would be the first international exposition of his line Kas Wear outside of Kampala, Uganda; and in fact, the very first time he had an opportunity to leave his country at all.

I have had the pleasure to help host his artistic genius since he touched down in Vancouver. As I have spent much time behind sewing machines in east Africa myself, I understand the extreme challenges one faces in countries where power is unreliable, equipment is old and any type of design or fashion related training is absent. Knowing very well that African sewing and tailoring scarcely involves the use of an actual pattern, any form of technical training or the tools necessary for advanced design, I found myself astounded as the collection started to come out of Kasozi’s luggage. Eyes fixed on each detail, I was blown away by the quality, ingenuity and heart that had undeniably gone into every piece.

One of the first things he told me while explaining his process was “I would very much like to find a mannequin while I’m here.” When I asked him how he fit his pieces back home without patterns or mannequin, Kasozi smiled at me and said, “I call friends who are the right measurements and wait until they are available to come for a fitting.” With that I began to comprehend the type of dedication that this young man puts into his work and how, at 25 years old, Ras Kasozi made history as the first Ugandan to have his unique collection recognized and celebrated internationally.

Four years ago Kasozi identified a need in himself to become part of a community in which he could be surrounded by other young people and support his artistic capability. It was at that time he heard about Bavubuka Foundation – a foundation in Kampala, Uganda committed to empowering youth to create positive change in their communities and the world; connecting youth with music and the arts to transform lives and unify diverse communities.  It was there, under the guidance of founder Silas Balabyekkubo that Kasozi says his talent really improved, claiming “it is a community with youth of different talents so you can help each other and learn from each other.”

After many years of working along side other creative entrepreneurs in the Bavubuka House, his designs became refined and Ras Kasozi became fully devoted to his art. Kas’ dedication to developing his line Kas Wear manifested opportunities to work with professional models and photographers who are supporters of the Bavubuka community. It was with those photographs of his earlier collection that Silas Balabyekkubo and collaborateur Patti Desante connected with Vancouver’s founder and CEO of the Five Agency, Justin Voitic and as they say, the rest is history!

When Kasozi got word that there were people at Vancouver Fashion Week interested in his work, he couldn’t believe it. “I didn’t know anything about processing a visa and I had to get it from Kenya. I had almost 2 weeks there but I couldn’t even prepare anything like sketching because I wanted to first get the visa to prove that I’m really going to Canada!” After enduring a seven day wait at the Canadian embassy and then a quick stock up of materials in Kenya, his drawing paper then occupied a 15 hour bus ride home. Ras Kasozi was enroute to strike Vancouver Fashion Week’s S/S 2013 runway with his absolutely stunning 24 look collection; sketched, cut, created on two continents and put together in less than 3 weeks.

When asked to speak to the character and essence of Kas’ recent accomplishment, Silas adds, “Kas Wear was born and manifested through the spirit shared with Bavubuka which is a community spirit for young people supporting each others ideas and visions to grow their creativity. In that context, being with Kas and spending a lot of time with him I’ve got to understand his passion of creative art, fashion and his desire to develop not only in the context of a fashion designer but to really leave a legacy within the fashion industry of Uganda itself. As a community inspired, community driven, and as a community supportive fashion designer who wants to establish not just an academy but a creative space for other young fashion communities to find the same story he’s able to tell today, which is a story of his dream coming true.”

Jamal Abdourahman, Producer of Vancouver Fashion Week (10 years running) adds “We are very fortunate to work with amazing people and projects where we are able to put others in the spot light.” I have to agree. Having the opportunity to highlight such amazing individuals is really a dream and as we’ve just witnessed by Ras Kasozi s/s collection titled Urban Indigenous, dreams do indeed come true.