AFRICAN DESCENT FESTIVAL (ADF) 2016

AFRICAN DESCENT FESTIVAL.

AFRICAN DESCENT SOCIETY

1. DESCRIPTION OF THE ORGANIZATION

The ADS is a non-profit organization registered, S-0063022, that exists to foster, empower and increase education,
economic development and tolerance for the preservation and promotion of African Descent , Arts, Culture, Customs,
Values, History, Arts, Heritage and way of life within Canada. The ADS promotes AFRICAN HERITAGE AND
CULTURAL CONSERVATION, GENERAL HISTORY OF AFRICA AND UN-INTERNATIONAL DECADE FOR
PEOPLE OF AFRICAN DESCENT in Vancouver, BC and Canada with a goal to have a Centre for African Heritage
as a legacy for Vancouver African Descent Heritage, Cultural programs and Black cultural centre. The ADS works to
produce and present cultural, heritage, education and social events that profile and celebrate Canadians of African
descent and to acquire all real and personal property which the Society shall deem necessary or convenient to carry
out its purposes. The ADS intends to connect and better serve all African descent Canadians and the general public
through this vision.

The ADS is a well-known and established organization that was revived from the African Canadians Cultural
Association which was started by the late Honorable Emery Barnes and Roger B Jones, in 1985. The organization
was revived in 2014 as African Descent Society to promote Black Canadian cultural heritage through the Hogan’s
Alley Memorial Project, which seeks to build a Centre for African Heritage at Hogan’s Alley former African Descent in
Vancouver. ADS is registered as a non-profit organization under the BC’s Society Act. The ADS society’s
registration number is S-0063022.

The ADS is governed by a solid Board of Directors and the project is led by a team of experts from both the African
and Canadian community, as well as experienced staff consultants (please refer to the attached list for project
management team). The project team is made of five volunteer experts assisted by two paid consultants. We also
have over one hundred volunteers that help us in our community and cultural programming such as festivals,
conferences, historical tours of the community, webmaster and webdesign, etc. The ADS programs include cultural
programs such as cultural community connections through dialogues and African descent festival, art entertainment
including music, dance, sport, games, poetry, storytelling, and many other activities that promotes African arts,
culture and heritage. We also have seniors and elders community engagement activities as part of the community
cultural services, as well as intercultural activities through sports programs (example soccer) for youth and adults.

The ADS provides cultural services to the Black community as well as to the community at large. Geographically, the
ADS is rooted in Hogan’s Alley and Vancouver Lower Mainland, but its mandate extends to the whole of British
Columbia. We engage our communities and audiences through several art and cultural programs, such as the Black
Strathcona, Vancouver Movie Theater, the black dot poetry, the black community cultural historical walk/tour and
community gatherings for elders who used to live in Hogan’s Alley, etc. We organize every summer black community
cultural festivals and activities. Training, learning, and research are also conducted here and this is where the
headquarters of ADS is based. It is for this reason that we need a Centre for African Heritage after the viaduct is
removed to preserve our history, culture, and heritage of the black community.
2. DESCRIPTION OF THE ORGANIZATION PROJECT

Canada being a Cultural diversity country, we, members of African Descent Society BC will appreciate the
opportunity to organize the second Descent Festival in the City of Vancouver and BC which is a contribution of
Art and Culture development for African descent in BC and Vancouver. Our festival promotes culture awareness
and connect artist from the corners of BC to present their Art and culture of African descent as part of
intercultural understanding. Here in Canada, we are encouraged to embrace each other’s culture, heritage,
and background, and by hosting an African Musical Festival to celebrate international cultures, the city is
directly recognized in promoting this attitude of oneness among all ethnic groups and communities to embrace
British Columbia Art and culture.

African Descent Festival is a cultural event that enables Canadians to enjoy and learn about different cultures
from different parts of African descent people recognition, justice and honour and also helps to promote local
artists in BC. It is a forum that provides every performer the opportunity to highlight their region (West Africa,
East Africa, Central Africa and North Africa) music and cultural heritage of all people of African descent Latin
America, African Caribbean, Brazil and all African descent people. Different community groups and
organizations will be invited to participate by hosting booths of any culture of their choosing. Different ethnic
Foods and games will be available. This event will have no admission and it’s a free entry participation of all
Canadians in BC including new immigrants, refugees’ settlement and in the Vancouver Region and throughout
BC.

African Descent Society British Columbia needs your support and partnership to make this Arts and cultural
event a success because event like this is not self-sustaining. Publicity and marketing fees of this event around
the Mainland, venue rental, security, logistics and transportation, artists and musicians’ fees, and general
administration fees are some of the expenses that need to be taken care of. Since part of the government’s
legitimate business is to support arts and culture in the community, we believe that, the participation and
support of the City of Vancouver and all other sponsors during this event will further reinforce the belief that
your city and these sponsors are arts friendly and support cultural activities in general.

Our target audience for this event includes people African descent, African immigrants and refugees, African
Caribbean, different ethnic groups throughout the lower mainland, citizens of the City of Vancouver and the
general public around the lower mainland, Fraser Valley, British Columbia and Canada as a whole.

Vision

To promote people of African descent arts and cultural heritage in Vancouver and British Columbia through
UNESCO General History of Africa and UN- International Decade for the people of African descent awareness in
BC.

Values

Community Engagement: We thrive on and encourage community participation and social connectedness.

Artistic Excellence: We cultivate and support talented artists and cultural producers.
Accessibility: we program a wide variety of events and activities to appeal to and engage a diverse range of
attendees and volunteers.

Heritage: We honour Vancouver’s original people of African descent Canadian neighbourhood and its History
our programming reflects the diverse perspectives of People of African descent heritage in Vancouver.

Hogan’s Alley Cultural Conservation: We envision in protection, disseminating Hogan’s Alley African Heritage
Conservation through Art, music and entertainments in Festivals which educate the general public about
African historical presence in BC and Vancouver.

Event Goals

-Commitment to works by B.C. and Canadian artists, new art forms, and the inclusion of diverse forms of
artistic expression.

-Support and contributing to the Artist and culture development of BC.

- Level and consistency of payments to professional artists and technicians participating in the project.

– Pay tribute to Hogan’s Alley Black Community entertainment and Black Community immigrants for the
development of Vancouver Art, Cultural and Music Entertainment.

Help promote cultural diversity in the City of Vancouver

– Provide contacts for musicians, artists, culture groups in the community.

-Community enjoyments and provide interaction between various Artist and communities.

– Provide avenue for different ethnic groups to showcase their arts and cultures in the city

– Organize information booths that represent different cultures (these could be posters, food, games, music,
souvenirs, etc.)

– Anything that could help educate people about different Arts, cultures and to celebrate diversity

– Promotion of local artists

-Building socially integrated society by building bridges among communities that promote intercultural
understanding

-Fostering citizenship, civic, pride, and respect for core democratic values grounded in Canada history.
-Promoting equal opportunities for individuals of all origin in BC.

-Improving the responsiveness of institutions to become more responsive to diversity to integrating

multiculturalism into their policy and program development and service delivery

-Actively engaging in discussions on multiculturalism and diversity at the international level by:

-promoting Canadian approaches to diversity as a successful model while contributing to an

-International policy dialogue on issues related to multiculturalism. (Funding for this objective will be primarily
for activities that take place in Canada).

Event Plans

Any event’s success depends on location. Choosing Former Hogan Alley area in Vancouver as the event venue
with lots of Black History, high-traffic, accessibility through sky train warrants large number of people attending
the event. According to our event schedule, beginning late morning and running through late afternoon to the
evening for two days allows enough time for large group to take in the African Music, the booths and displays.
Also, it provides time for visitors to learn some African dances, arts and crafts.

Volunteers are the most important asset to a successful event. Our network of volunteers have proved to us
time and time again that they can really get the job done by scheduling activities, promoting the event, and
making sure that event day goes smoothly.

We do have different committees that facilitates different aspects of the event, namely: Management
committee, Planning Committee, Publicity Committee and Marketing Committee

Community Impact

At the close of the event, we measure our community impact by:

– How many people attended the event?

– Comments made on the evaluation sheets about the event by attendees

– Comments made about the event on our website.

– Numbers of unwanted incidents that came up during the event.

– Numbers of cultural and ethnic groups that were represented at the event.
Benefits to the City and BC Art Council benefits.

Through funding this project, the BC Arts Council benefits many different way; there is a strong need of the
project in BC and Vancouver in particular lack African cultural engagement activities. So this project will help to
fulfil the mandate of our culture and executing the most relevant work of BC Arts Council of promoting Arts
and Culture. The project helps community and local Artists to develop their skills through workshop
collaboration and networking with other local festival and cultural groups in Vancouver. At local level. The
festival provides local engagements, Aboriginal, people, community arts organisations and cultural and
multicultural diverse communities. The project will provide unique accessible places for audience to
entertainment and learning the cultural communities in British Columbia.

Some of the benefits to the city through this musical festival are the recognition of the city of Vancouver in all
our promotional materials – flyers, banners, leaflets, letters, and public meetings with stakeholders, radio,
community television and our website. During the event, the city will be mentioned as a sponsor in all our
activities and will encourage participants and visitors to patronize the city because of her friendliness to
cultures.

United Black Canadians Community Association and African Descent, has the capacity to realize the
proposed project including presentation of realistic budget assumptions and projections, that
demonstrate a diversified revenue base, with significant funding from sources other than the BC Arts
Council, including earned revenues, local government support, and in particular local private sector
funding.