The Forum at Midnight

Now in our third year, The Midnight Forum has empowered over 100 youth in the arts and leadership. This year, in addition to the continuing incredible support of friends and volunteers, we’ve received grants from:

• D.C. Arts and Humanity and National Endowment for the Arts
• DC Rotary Club Foundation
• Diann H. Painter --matched by Exxon Mobil Retirement Matching Grant Program. These grants have allowed us to do some payback and to progress.
• Veteran volunteer trainers got some well-deserved honorariums.
• Education and arts program supplies were purchased to enhance the youth music, visual arts, and business plan projects.
• The website, www.Midnightforum.org, and the curriculum book were revised. Special thanks to Mitch Bechtel who updated the website, Check it out!

The Midnight Forum Year in Review:

Fall 2002 brought a core group of alums plus new recruits to sessions at the D.C. Department and Recreation of Stead Recreation Center as a DC Metro Youth Program. This semester’s emphasis on the visual arts really benefited from our new trainer Mike Hammond, a veteran traditional and Hip-Hop visual artist and historian. Mike got the group looking at the history of graffiti and then helped with hands-on experience that resulted in several murals on canvas.

The Disc Jockey (DJ) and Master of Ceremony (MC) Youth Artists worked on practicing their techniques and in recording their songs.

The Midnight Forum Year-In-Review:

Spring 2003: brought the Midnight Forum its first college intern Julius Schlueter from UMD-Collee Park. Julius acted as Program Manager at the DC Metro Youth Program.

• Another group of college students from Howard University and Brown University were doing a series of video documentaries about how Hip-Hop can be used as a positive and social change force in the community so they featured Midnight Forum youth.
• This spring, our trainers helped participants develop and implement a business plan to produce a public mural on the historicU Street. The youth created a large canvas mural What is the Midnight Forum? and recorded a song Massive Mission expressing their views on the unfinished historical business in Iraq.
• Midnight Forum participants showcased their music and visual arts talent at several public events at Friendship House, Eastern Market Day, and Mount Pleasant Day.

Summer 2003 DC Metro Youth Program returned alums and recruited more youth to the program.

• The visual arts group worked on two projects. First, participants developed several sticker designs and then chose the best one to be produced and distributed to publicize the Midnight Forum organization. The mural project was even more exciting. With support and guidance from the trainers, Midnight Forum members practiced their techniques on canvas. The practice paid off since the amazingly professional final piece is now a public mural at Capitol City Records on U Street.

• The DJ group got hands-on training and practice in the techniques of being music producers.

• The MCs wrote and recorded several songs for The Midnight Forum Compilation Album. The album features performers from the DC Metro Youth Program along with several artists from D.C. and New York City who want to give back to the community. Special Thanks to Music Artists: Noyeek the Grizzly Bear, Heron Gibran, Lee Majors, Nate Nice, Red-Dot, Prochi, Black Child, Blyss, Kevin Brown and Cy Young, Poem-Cees with Grap Luva, Vis Winters, Chico Son, Q-45, Raheem DeVaugh, Spirit Equality, Team Demolition, DJ Menace, DJ Tru, Kokayi and Sub-Z, W Ellington Felton, Black Child, Lo$, Jabari, Tre, and others.

The Midnight Forum, Inc Staff, Board and Supporters: Staff: Daniel Berry AKA DINO, Executive Director and Founder Board of Directors: Dominic "Tru" Painter, Chair/; Javier Griffiths, Vice-Chair/ Secretary; Tyrone Alvin, Treasurer; Jihad Isaac Mungen, Steve “Steve-O” Jones. Shanna "Shae" Lim, and Daniel Berry AKA DINO. Grants: American Legacy Foundation, Anonymous, Dian H. Painter, Mobil Foundation Matching Grant Program, Rawkus Entertainment, National Congress Community Economic Development, DC Children and Youth Investment Trust Corporation, DC Government, DC Department of Health, DC Arts and Humanity/National Endowment of the Arts, DC Rotary Club Foundation, Metron Incorporated, and W.A.Y. Too Cool! Youth Leadership Initiative Web Designers: George Mason University Students, and Red Sparks, Inc Donated Newsletter’s: Kinko’s Newsletter Editor, Photographer, and Writer: The Hynes and Berry Family