For my capstone, I chose to use one of SLA's Core values and Collaborated with Jaazaniah Hayes, and Naihema Powell in order to put together a showcase that incorporated some of SLA's different capstones into one big show. Jaazaniah and I worked together to put together a rap cypher to be apart of the show. Before we did anything, we researched how exactly to put together a show, and what things we needed. After several hours of fundraising and planning, we had enough to start actually putting the show together. We had auditions for the modeling of Clothing lines, we got some of SLA’s strongest artists to perform in the cypher, and we got some people that were in the digital photography/video class to work the lighting and camera work. We held practices/rehearsals every tuesday and thursday at our school, and on the week of the show, we had practice every day leading up to the show’s date. At the end of it, we had a great show, and lots of people came out and supported our capstone. It wasn’t easy, we barely got any sleep at night but it was all worth it in the end.

Here is some footage from the Cypher.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-RgLTVsg-g6Rk9xVXpFVTdNQXc/view?usp=sharing

BIBLIOGRAPHY

"How to Raise Money for a Nonprofit." Entrepreneur. N.p., 28 Nov. 2006. Web. 30 Jan. 2015. <http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/171296>.

When i first looked at this source I saw I immediately grabbed it. For my capstone im going to need some get rich quick schemes in order to cover my expenses. I have to pay for the entertainment, and more importantly we are going to have to pay for the venue. I understand that we are going to get a lot money back from selling tickets but we need to raise money for coverage. Especially since we are going to be coming out of pocket for a lot of it.

http://npengage.com/nonprofit-fundraising/boost-donor-acquisition-online-fundraising/

This was similar to the one i did above. But it focused more on online fundraising. I thought that it would bring more money in if we fundraise online. I have seen tons of people fundraise online for anything. Mostly i have seen funerals. But it would make our job a lot easier if we did it online. That way its mobile and less messy.

http://www.musicbizacademy.com/articles/showcase.htm

This source was mainly opinionated. I didn’t know anything about running a showcase or even what it takes to do one. This source focused more on the creativity level that you have to have in order for it to be a success.  It talked about themes that you need to have, and also recruiting a certain attraction in order to get more audience. They also talked about ways to sell more tickets.

http://npengage.com/nonprofit-marketing/3-easy-ways-sell-more-tickets/

This source was really helpful. Me doing a showcase, we are going have to sell tickets in order to pay a portion of the venue’s expense. This source taught me new ways on selling tickets. They said we should give something else while we are selling tickets. Like telling the people we are selling to that we will give them something for free if we sell tickets. so basically give something or getting something.

Thomas

I had a long conversation with thomas. Last year he did a showcase to raise money for the DC trip. He told me all the ins and outs of holding and hosting your own show. One of te main problems that he had from last year was false advertisement. He had promised a specific person to be there. The person was very popular in philadelphia and the person flaked out and didn’t want to do the appearance. He overcame it with the backup plan. He had booked more than one popular artists to show up.

Kenisha Woods

My Sophomore year, Kenisha had did a fashion show/ rap show. I wanted to talk to her about how she incorporated the two together. Afterall they are totally different topics and i was there at her show and she did an excellent job making the transitions.  She told me that you don’t want to have to much of the same thing going on continuously. If you have 5 back to back showcases of clothing and then 1 rap performance, they are going to get tired out, especially if you have someone that they are waiting to see.

http://smallbusiness.chron.com/code-business-conduct-2732.html

In this article, the author wrote about conducting yourself in a business conduct. When you are trying to make a deal with someone it is very important that you conduct yourself in a very professional matter. Someone isn’t going to let you use their facility if they see that you are being goofy and you aren’t mature. Your age is already a minus, but if they see that you seem to be responsible, and mature you are sure to get what you want.

My dad

I talked to my dad. He currently works at the wells fargo center and he knows a lot about how they work their operations over there. Wells fargo center has a plethora of events going on. They have to move equipment almost everyday. They have to set up the floor for the sixers games, in the mixture of having concerts and wrestling matches there. He told me that im going to have to get together an event staff. Maybe ten trustworthy and hardworking people to help setup. And i need to know that i will have to either pay them or feed them .

Michael Jackson’s this is it

Everyone has either heard about or has seen the documentary of the michael jackson concert rehearsals. You can see how sometimes he would get frustrated because things weren’t going the way they were supposed to. It took a lot of rehearsing and time and effort in order to get things the way that he wanted them to be. He had a couple different performers and dancers. He had a lot of money also put into his show. This is just a little motivation to how much hard work and dedication im going to have to have in order to pull this off.

Everyone has their own preference in books.  I myself like the books that i can relate and have a special connection with. I like the books where there is drama from beginning to end. “Trife life of lavish” by Deja King is a perfect example of that. This book is about a woman named Teresa who is running from her past and meets new friends along the way.  She was living with, and dating the love of her life. He was a man whore, he literally slept with everything that walked. She put up with it for two reasons, she was in love, and he took care of her and her daughter Genevieve. One day she walked on him having sex with an unknown woman. She rages with frustration and curses him and the woman out. Her and the man gets into a heated argument that leads the man hitting teresa. After she recovers, she picks up a lamp and hits him in the head three times. He dies. She takes all the money she knows he has, and her things  and flees off.  With her on this crazy ride is her daughter that can’t let go of her mother’s past.

Deja King does an excellent job using dialogue and third person point of view to show how the mother and the daughter feel about the mother’s past.  From beginning to end this book will have you on the edge of your seat wondering what’s going to happen next.

The style of writing she has makes you really want to open your eyes to the world, She writes about real life situations and altercations in a fiction state. She actually has a  whole series of books. They are called the King Productions. Books in her series are entitled, B*tch parts 1,2,3,4 and 5, Stackin Paper parts 1 and 2, Dirty little Secrets, Hooker to housewife, Superstar, Trife life to lavish parts 1 and 2, Ride wit me, and Princess paper. After reading Trife life to lavish part 1, I would definitely consider reading those other books. It’s something about Deja King that I can actually sit there and read her books and not want to stop.

The reason why I liked this book is because something similar happened to my mother. My biological father disrespected my mother sort of in the way Teresa’s husband did to her. Even though I was only two years old, I knew what was going on. My mother even tells me different scenarios of them getting into arguments and fights about the certain things. This book sparked my interest the most because as I was reading the back summary, I could make a personal connection with what the book was about. I love books like that. When you pull me in by telling me a summary of the book and in my mind I say, “Hey, something similar happened to me”, 99 percent of the time I’m going to read it.

Deja King was born in Toledo, Ohio but was raised in California, New Jersey, Maryland, and North California. She went to North California Central College and majored in Journalism. Her inspiration of writing was gained from her mother. She said that Deja had a special talent that she should embrace. Ever since then Deja has been righting books and climbing the charts as a best selling author. Her book “Trife life 2 Lavish” was released February 14th, 2009.

If I was a book critic I would highly recommend this book for anyone looking for a book with a lot of drama as soon as you jump into the book. This isn’t your ordinary book. This book has lots of drama, flashbacks, and jumps right into the plot almost instantly. And the language is so colorful. If you like confrontation this book is for you. Deja King’s use of dialogue in this story is very choosy. She gives you that mature audience language with a little bit of extra intellectual dialect to add on top of it. This book in my mind deserves a 8 out of 10. I could make a life connection, it used lots of dialogue, it had little bits and pieces of foreshadowing, figurative language, and suspense. The author also did an excellent job describing how each character was feeling at different points of the story. This book had you at the edge of your seats thinking and wondering what the characters are going to do next. So if you like a Action packed, drama, with lots of colorful dialect from a third person point of view, “Trife life 2 lavish” is the perfect book.

​This year in history I learned a lot , Whether or not it was about crossing boundaries, or freedom and the meaning of being free, this years history class has taught me a lot. There were some ups and there were definitely some downs but at the end I learned. And I got to learn from and meet some new people along the way. Throughout the course of the year we did a lot of things that helped me learn that particular unit. We had mock trials, plays, or interpretive dances, Mr Block sure had his way of getting his point across to teach us. This is just a quick taste of what this school year of 10th english and history was like at SLA.

1. One of our very first big assignments of the school year was a descriptive essay. The assignment was to write an essay and to make sure that it unfolds, had lots of detail and description, had dialogue, and focused on one or more particular moments in time. I wrote mine about the time that my brother and I got into a fight and were jumped by a group of adults while at a park. Here you will find a link in which you can read this essay in further detail.

https://docs.google.com/a/scienceleadership.org/document/d/1pOoVN2pTZBcgcS95kTLVkZDhxdHHK6-V62oPONmKWQI/edit

2. The second assignment that i am going to put on my blog is my language essay. This of course was apart of the language unit. This Unit taught me all about language and the different types of languages where it be a native speaking language, or your everyday slang, or a speech impediment. I touch based on all of those aspects in my language autobiography. Here is two links. One of the exact essay, and another of my video on languages.

https://docs.google.com/a/scienceleadership.org/document/d/1eyc0wclTY7bpD-zQ-6Xt2TT7EqKo_UzZGvmL6JHVAYI/edit

https://www.scienceleadership.org/blog/I-m_Different

3. My third piece of work that i will be showing is actually from history. This is from the renaissance unit. We had to pick a artist who was around from the renaissance times and research them. You had to get six paintings, and talk about why you think the artist drew or painted it, and talk about how the colors or nature of the artwork reflected on the mood or the harlem renaissance. Here is the link to my Work in Vincent Van Gogh.

https://docs.google.com/a/scienceleadership.org/document/d/1CR1qmXliU4_k9FQ97E-rOED4U9eOpSFPr-SHge-z2oA/edit

4. My fourth memory of this magnificent year is when we were in our freedom unit. We were learning on how different tribes and groups of people gained freedom with using non violent and violent tactics.  “In my opinion, Violence and nonviolence are both powerful in their own sense. For Instance, Non violence can be powerful over violence if you want to get something done. In a good sense if you want to accomplish an objective non violence would be the way to go. Violence affects all people and can possibly end lives. Non violence can win you lots of sympathy, and sends a stronger message.”

5.