Minnesota African Action Coalition: Arts-based Community Engagement, Leadership & Network Building
AEDS will harness African heritage art and culture to support and bolster community engagement, leadership development, and networking activities that culminate in launching the Minnesota African Action Coalition (MAAC). MAAC will facilitate collaboration among diverse African Minnesotans and create economic opportunities for African heritage artists, vendors, and businesses while reinforcing, preserving, and exploring our diverse cultures and identities.
2022-2023 Cultural Heritage and Community Identity Grants - Winter 2021
Through community conversations and networking, the activities involved in our proposed art and the culture-infused coalition-building process will achieve several interrelated and mutually-reinforcing outcomes for African Minnesotans and the broader Minnesota community. AEDS' mission is to economically empower African Minnesotans. We are the only African-led organization that intentionally uses African art and cultural assets to drive local economic development, support African entrepreneurs, and build family and community wealth. AEDS will commission African immigrant artists as partners in all project activities, helping to boost their income and sustain them in their practices as cultural creators and evolvers. One artist will kick off each community conversation and networking event with a performance; 3 - 5 artists will present work at each annual leadership conference. AEDS' network of artists includes Ethiopian vocalist Genet Abate, the Somali Museum Dance Troupe, the Ethiopian Eritrean Students Association, and Afrocontigbo, an African-women dance group that draws audiences to join energetic, spirit-lifting dances. The project will also provide platforms to lift and promote African food, jewelry, apparel, and other cultural vendors and small businesses to grow their base of customers and income. The project creates venues and economic opportunities for African immigrant artists to share and showcase their talents, thus supporting the development of diverse humanities programming by individual Minnesotans of African heritage.
Community conversations and leadership conferences will support African Minnesotan professionals representing a range of sectors and organizations, with honorariums. Their commissioned participation in these activities acknowledges the value of their expertise, lived experiences, and skills; raise their visibility to a broader professional network; and uplifts their confidence to challenge negative narratives about our cultures and communities. AEDS will work with African and other ethnic-led media organizations such as Oromia 11, Mshale, and the Sahan Journal to promote the events and participating artists and speakers to millions of statewide, national, and global audiences. By providing African immigrant artists, vendors, professionals, and leaders with financial resources and significant media exposure, the project will better preserve and honor African cultural heritage and identity in Minnesota.
Proposed activities will also increase the depth and breadth of Minnesotans who will connect with our state's African arts, culture, and heritage and provide education on African cultural identity. The project will unite Minnesotans representing Minnesota's growing and increasingly diverse African diaspora to experience and learn about each other's art, culture, histories, and heritage in more significant ways. In addition to being audiences of diverse African cultural performances and other art forms, integrated into project activities, African Minnesotans will engage in thoughtful and evocative dialogue to broaden and deepen their understanding of each other's heritage, cultural identity, and experiences. Through these discussions, they will build relationships, find commonalities, and be empowered to co-create a shared cultural identity inclusive of their various experiences as African Minnesotans and to take action through the emerging coalition.
In 2022, AEDS made significant progress in supporting the development of diverse humanities programming by individual Minnesotans of African heritage to preserve and honor African cultural heritage and identity in our state. We planned, produced, and offered three online forums, the festival, and parade, and the 3rd annual leadership conference to lift and provide education about dynamic and intersecting African cultural identities, increasing the depth and breadth of Minnesotans to connect with the state's ever-diversifying and evolving African art, culture, and heritage African heritage artists and cultural practitioners were commissioned to share their talents at these events, earning income and growing their audiences while raising awareness of African contributions to MN's art, culture, and economic landscape.
Community Conversations and Listening Forums
April 6, 2022: Cultural Asset Tools for African Business Development This first forum started with a poem by MN-based, Sagirah Shahid, a Black American African Poet. AEDS' Director of Small Business Development, Homeownership, and Workforce Programs, Idris Mohammed, was joined by three other African immigrant panelists from across the US to share their insights and expertise about innovative art and culture-based strategies deployed by African immigrant entrepreneurs to start and grow microenterprises and small businesses. Moderated by Nigerian-born dance artist, Korma Aguh-Stuckmayer, of AfroContigbo, the event highlighted the resources available for artists and entrepreneurs to build a successful business with African cultural asset tools. June 29, 2022: A Lived Experience of African Artists and Cultural Creators in Preserving, Honoring, and Transforming African Cultural Heritage and Identity MN-based journalist, Artist/Poet, and Diaspora Engagement Artist, Lolla Mohammed Nur, facilitated a panel of four African immigrant artists, cultural creators, and nonprofit leaders. Nimo Farah, Bush Fellow and co-founder of Somali Arts Language and Leadership Institute, was among the panelists who explored how she and others on the panel use their creative vision and skills to preserve, honor, and transform African cultural heritage and identity across Minnesota and the US> September 28, 2022: African Cultural Health and Wellness Virtual Forum The last community conversation of 2022 featured two St Paul-based African immigrant healthcare professionals, Dr. Florence Njoyi DBH, LICSW, MSW, and Dr. Richard B. Oni, and Dr. Milkeeso H. Foge, a healthcare professional from Minneapolis. The session, moderated by Dr. Gemechu A. Kurfessa, examined how Africans use their diverse cultural traditions and practices to support health and wellness, and navigate the impacts of the pandemic on the medical, mental, and socio-emotional health and well-being of African immigrants, refugees, and second-generation youth.
Little Africa Festival and Parade: August 7, 2022
This year's event featured about 19 visual and performing artists, an African designer fashion show, and nearly 60, mainly African Minnesotan, vendors selling food, beverages, apparel, jewelry, books, and professional services. The event included an all-nations parade that all audience members were invited to join.
National Leadership Conference: December 8 & 9, 2022 The 2023 event, produced as a hybrid live and online event, was an incredible success with keynote speakers, PLO Lumumba, direct from Kenya, and dynamic author and inspirational speaker, Dr. Verna Price. Plenary panels and break-out sessions focused on creative placemaking, art-based healing and cultural identity, and African women and youth leadership. The event featured art and cultural performances from African artists that included singers, Addisu Fergassa and Genet Abate, and performances by West African dancers with Afrocontigbo and the Somali Museum Dance Group.
MAAC Coalition Building Activities: Ongoing
2022 forums and the year-end 3rd annual Conference facilitated ongoing cross-ethnic coalition-building activities among African leaders across MN and connected them with African leaders across the country. A five-member national coalition board comprised of AEDS' President and CEO, Dr. Gene Gelgelu, as the coalition Chair and Grace Mbosi-Enwesi, President of the MN Institute for Nigerian Development (MIND MN), serving as the Vice Chair, has formed. The board joins four African immigrant and refugee leaders who include Twin Cities-based leaders, Mr. Mohamed Ahmed, Founder and CEO of the MN-based, Kayed Foundation, and Mr. Jude Nnadi, Founder and CEO of the MN African Coalition. AEDS is currently seeking funding to subcontract Bo Thao, Co-Founder of the Coalition of Asian American Leaders (CAAL), to facilitate the coalition planning and building process. ; During the final reporting period of 2023, AEDS leveraged our remaining MHC grant funds to organize and produce a series of community conversations and engagement activities with ethnically diverse African Minnesotans - immigrants, refugees, and US-born and raised young adults and youth. These activities fostered and facilitated dialogue about issues of most concern for participants, their families, and the broader African Minnesotan communities they represent while helping to develop their leadership, networking, public speaking, and cross-culture and cross-sector communication skills.
Community Conversation
2023 Virtual Forums
Building on the success of the 2022 Annual National Leadership Conference, we partnered with African Minnesotan leaders representing various sectors to host three forums in 2023 year-to-date. Moderators and panelists were paid honorariums to share their subject matter expertise and facilitate and engage in meaningful and rich discussions.February 22, 2023: Weaving Connections, Building Community, and Celebrating DiversityThis forum celebrating Black History Month featured an all-African immigrant and refugee woman panel of presenters, including Dr. Artika R. Tyner, a Minnesota-based Motivational and Social Change Speaker. The session opened with poetry from Twin Cities artist Sagirah Shahid to spur dialogue around Black History, cross-cultural relationship building between African immigrants and African Americans and harnessing cultural assets to start, grow, and build thriving businesses and create wealth-building pathways. Approximately 74 individual leaders, mainly Minnesota-based African immigrants and refugees, registered, with about 50 participating in the virtual forum. April 5, 2023: Culturally-specific Business Development Strategies for African Immigrant CommunitiesModerated by Jamie (Schumacher) Kalakaru-Mava, Minneapolis-based artist and author, this session featured a panel of African immigrant cultural business development professionals, including AEDS' Director of Small Business Development and Homeownership Programs, Idris Mohammed. The session explored strategies employed by African immigrants and refugees to translate their cultural assets, such as food, apparel, designs, jewelry, stories, and healing practices, to start and operate businesses that preserve and reinforce African cultural identity and meet the needs of African Minnesotans for cultural goods and culturally-grounded professional and other businesses services delivered in their languages by entrepreneurs from their communities. These businesses also help immigrants and refugees transition to life in Minnesota and the U.S., making the neighborhoods where they live and work more welcoming. On average, the first two forums drew an average of 90 participants, were viewed on AEDS' social media over 500 times, and reached over 1,000 individuals statewide and nationally. September 20, 2023: African Cultural Healing Practices and Lessons to Be LearnedHanna Getachew Kreusser, Executive Director of Face to Face, moderated the session focused on traditional African cultural health practices and how these practices are being integrated into medical and mental health services for African Minnesotans. Over 40 individuals participated in the forum, which reached 220 people as a live broadcast forum. Over 100 Minnesotans participated in the forum, mainly African immigrants and refugees. The event was well received, with Africans viewing the discussion from the US, the UK, Europe, several African nations, the Middle East, and India.
2023 Little Africa Creative Placemaking
AEDS partnered with the Minnesota Humanities Center to offer a Little Africa Business and Cultural District tour on July 27 from 11 am to 1 p.m. MHC and AEDS staff were joined by 40 Minnesotans, mainly non-Africans, on the tour, which included snacks and beverages at the Snelling Caf', where participants were introduced to the district as AEDS' creative placemaking initiative. The tour proceeded with a visit to several African cultural-themed exterior murals on district businesses. The tour participants split into groups to visit Ethiopian and Ghanaian-owned hair braiding and beauty salons, Ethiopian and Somali markets, and a traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremony at Sabrina Caf'. AEDS staff shared information about the businesses and the ceremony and its cultural and business significance. The tour group returned to Snelling Caf' where they enjoyed traditional Ethiopian food for lunch, viewed a documentary about the district, and shared feedback about their experiences.
The 2023 Little Africa Festival and Parade were tremendously successful, with an intergenerational, cross-ethnic audience of nearly 10,000 Minnesotans experiencing African art, food, and cultural products from over 100 performing artists and 65 vendors. At the end of 2020, we purchased a building on Snelling Avenue to anchor our Little African creative placemaking efforts amongst Midway-Hamline's African immigrant residents and entrepreneurs, with the goals of redeveloping this building into the Little Africa Plaza with an African halal grocery store, spaces for cultural businesses, and the Little Africa Museum and Gallery. To date, we have secured capital grants to support its redevelopment and transformation. We anticipate completing work and opening the space to the public in April 2024. As the space is being redeveloped, we will engage African Minnesotans and others in planning, designing, and developing a Little Africa Museum and Gallery as a new art and cultural institution and destination to center our creative placemaking work in the district.
MAAC Coalition Building Activities: Ongoing
AEDS continued to engage African Minnesotan leaders in discussions in 2023 focused on building a statewide coalition and is exploring the drafting of bylaws and other related legal structures for the coalition with a Minneapolis-based pro bono law firm.
Bush Foundation: $50,000
MN State Arts Board: $25,000
BCBS Center for Prevention: $12,500
City of St Paul Culture STAR: $10,000
Building Healthy Places CIRE: $30,000
Capital Region Watershed District: $10,000
LISC TC: $25,000
Metropolitan Regional Arts Commission: $15,000
Corporate Sponsorships: $30,700
Vendor Fees: $8,875
Conference Registration Fees: $14,751
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* MN State Arts Board (General Operating Support): $25,000
* Festival and Parade: City of St Paul Culture STAR: $10,000
* Festival and Parade: Capital Region Watershed District: $12,000
* Festival and Parade: Metropolitan Regional Arts Commission: $15,000
* Festival and Parade: Corporate Sponsorships: $25,000. Little Africa Festival and Parade
* BMO Harris: $250
* Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community: $250
* Concordia: $500
* MEDA: $1,000
* Reconnect Rondo: $1,000
* Ramsey and Dakota Recycling $7,500
* Allianz $2,500
* US Bank $2,500
* CRWD: $12,000
* MRAC Flexible Support: $15,000
* MN State Arts Board $25,000
* The Aliveness Project: $2,500
* Twin Cities Rise: $500
Conference
* Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota Center for Prevention: $10,000
* City of St Paul Culture Star: $10,000
* Bush Foundation: $10,000
* Greater Twin Cities United Way: $2,500
* Old National Bank: $2,500
* US Bank: $2,500
* Youthprise: $2,500
Gebi Tufa (will be appointed Treasurer) Private Citizen
Omar Kissi, Owner Oromia Transportation
Rebecca Cooper, Secretary Affluent Segment Leader, Wells Fargo Bank
Antony J Isubikalu, Member Assistant Vice President, US Bank Wealth Management
Gene Gelgelu (MBA), Ex Officio President & CEO, African Economic Development Solutions (AEDS); Kate Speed, Board Chair Program Officer, Twin Cities Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC)
Gebi Tufa, Treasurer (Community Member)
Omar Kissi, Owner Oromia Transportation
Rebecca Cooper, Secretary Affluent Segment Leader, Wells Fargo Bank
Antony J Isubikalu, Member Assistant Vice President, US Bank Wealth Management
Gene Gelgelu (MBA), Ex Officio President & CEO, African Economic Development Solutions (AEDS)