Help enrich the lives of youth in Sulphur Springs and empower them to improve their own community!

As some of you may already know, the Moses House is one of three local grassroots nonprofit organizations that are being granted permission to lease (rent-free) the currently unoccupied buildings at the Mann-Wagnon Memorial Park at 1101 E. River Cove Street in Sulphur Springs. (The other two nonprofits are the Sulphur Springs Museum and Community Stepping Stones.) These buildings have remained vacant since the Hillsborough County Parks, Recreation and Conservation Department moved out toward the end of 2008. Over the course of 2009, the Sulphur Springs Cultural Park Partnership (the three nonprofits) and their allies at USF and elsewhere have been actively negotiating with County and City officials to be granted use of the buildings and surrounding green park area, which borders the Hillsborough River. USF faculty and students, especially from the Anthropology Department and the College of The Arts, have played major roles throughout this entire endeavor. For more about the history of this initiative, as it was reported in the local news media, click here.


Prior to occupancy of the buildings, each of the three nonprofits must meet certain criteria specified by the Arts Council of Hillsborough County and the Board of County Commissioners. For the Moses House, this includes demonstrating that we have the capacity to renovate our building, the funds to finance organizational operations and programming, sufficient staff and volunteers to direct and assist with program activities, business and marketing plans for sustaining the organization and attracting community members to its facilities, and the ability to make utilities payments and cover our share of the grounds maintenance costs.


The Moses House is now busily preparing our move-in proposal and drumming up support. As a way to encourage donations and pledges of support, three Moses House youth participants have made a video tour of the building we will be allowed to occupy as soon as we meet the move-in criteria. This video was made as part of a series of “Hood Documentaries” being produced by Sulphur Springs youth in the Moses House digital video workshop. It can be viewed below. (For better viewing, click on PAUSE until the entire video loads up, then click on PLAY.)



If you or anyone you know is able to help support the Moses House through donations or volunteering (or pledges of donations and/or volunteering), please e-mail us or visit the donation page on our website. We are accepting miscellaneous furniture, office supplies and office furniture, computer equipment, music and sound equipment, art supplies, books and videos about the history and cultures of Africa and the African Diaspora, and building renovation supplies, as well as monetary donations in any amount. All monetary donations will go toward operating expenses and programming costs; the Moses House board of directors, executive director, instructors, and program staff do not receive any salaries or wages from donated monies.

All donations will be used to further the organization’s mission: to create and provide community-based cultural and educational programs and activities for children and youth from low-income families; to support and conduct non-partisan research, education, and informational activities to increase public awareness of the poor, distressed, and underprivileged; to defend human rights and civil rights secured by law; to strive for the elimination of prejudice and discrimination; to advance social justice education; and to combat community deterioration, juvenile delinquency, and the criminalization of children and youth (see our Mission Statement).

Thank you from everyone at the Moses House!

Life Under 21 film shoot at The Workshop (Behind The Scenes footage)

Bay News 9 in Tampa bay recently paid us a visit to shoot a piece on the workshop for their Cable On-Demand Show called "Life Under 21," which is hosted by Danielle Belusky. Here are three behind the scenes videos shot & edited by one of our instructors/volunteers Carlos (dj Chang Bang) Corcho. Make sure to join "Life Under 21's" Facebook page.

Lance Arney on Black Teen Empowerment Radio!

"Today we are speaking with Lance Arney who is a Ph.D. Candidate in Applied Anthropology and Instructor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of South Florida, where he is also Program Assistant in the Office of Community Engagement. In his spare time, Lance volunteers as Executive Director of the Moses House, a nonprofit youth arts activist organization in Tampa, Florida, and as Media and Educational Adviser to Hood Success, a new nonprofit organization that promotes positive media representation of people overcoming adversity in “da hood.”
Black Teen Empowerment Radio

Lance, an educational activist anthropologist, is interested in constructing community activist projects with urban youth who are racial/ethnic minorities and who live in situations of poverty. As a researcher, he has devoted the last six years of his life to studying how such populations are marginalized and excluded by the societies in which they live and what they can do to resist marginalization and transform their own lives and communities. As an activist, Lance is working with young African Americans in Tampa to create social activist projects that combine art and cultural expression, social justice education, critical pedagogy, and participatory action research in order to produce transformative knowledge that can guide positive social change.

click right "save link as" to download!
Lance Arney - Live on Black Teen Empowerment Radio

Shunda K on Women's Radio News!

Women's Radio News

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Summer Slam Jam Video

Sulphur Springs Summer Slam Jam 2009! (Friday evening, August 7th)

The first ever Sulphur Springs Summer Slam Jam took place this past Friday evening, August 7th, 2009. The Moses House, DJ Chang Bang, DJ James West, the North Tampa Community Center (the “Rec”), the Boys and Girls Clubs of Tampa Bay, and Hood Success all collaborated to make this event a reality for the youth of Sulphur Springs. Neighborhood kids, teens, and young adults showed off their athletic and musical talents through participation in basketball contests and live musical performances, spoken word, and dance. Coaches from the Rec and the Boys and Girls Club refereed and supervised the basketball tournaments and contests. Chang Bang deejayed, keeping the music playing throughout the entire event. A festive mood pervaded everyone and a party atmosphere prevailed, despite the approaching storm clouds and light drizzle.

The Moses House and crew served free food to everyone in attendance. Two hundred hot dog sandwiches, 15 large pizzas (generously donated by Gumby’s Pizza), two sandwich platters, one vegetable platter, and hundreds of bottles of water and cans of soda were consumed. DJ James West, Tasha, Maressa, and Vanessa grilled hot dogs and made sure everyone got to eat. Winners of the basketball contests were awarded free entrance passes to Grand Prix Tampa (courtesy of Grand Prix Tampa and worth $108 total!). Those who did a musical performance were awarded a $10 gift card from the Olive Garden (courtesy of the Olive Garden on Busch Blvd) and $10 gift cards from Wal-Mart (courtesy of the Moses House and worth $60 total). And Shunda K gave away 25 free copies of her CD entitled DJ ORION PRESENTS: The Best Of Shunda K Vol 1 (worth $175 total) to the lucky ones in attendance. In sum, $750 worth of food and prizes were given out to Sulphur Springs youth. The Moses House is grateful to the local businesses and to those who helped make this event a success.



















Flier designed by DJ James West. Video footage recorded by Niko, Jeff, and Lance.

workshop and preparation for the Sulphur Springs Summer Slam Jam (August 5th)

Video footage recorded by Niko and Lance.

at the National Night Out in Sulphur Springs (August 4th)

Toby speaks about the need for young Black men to stand up and be leaders, to inspire other youth to make positive changes in their communities, and to struggle against racism and the other forms of injustice that are destroying their lives. Recorded at the National Night Out event in Sulphur Springs. Representatives from the Moses House were in attendance and promoted the Street Music Workshop and the upcoming Summer Slam Jam. Toby performed some of his poetry, and Sharmain sang a few of her songs.

Video footage recorded by Lance.

In da Hood! (Saturday night, August 1st)

Story coming soon!








Video footage recorded by Jeff (Hood Success).

One of our most lively freestyle sessions yet! (July 29th)

Video footage recorded by Niko.

flier for Summer Slam Jam 2009!

We got a local event planned in a week called the Summer Slam Jam! Local youth will enter to compete in basketball tournaments, and there will be performances by some of the participants in our workshop: Toby, Sharmaine, Shunda K, MC Hucaboom, Jeff, Stefan, Ced, and Tay! Also djs Chang Bang, and James West will provide the beats throughout the day!

Flier designed by DJ James West.

Hood Success

Jeff (above, left) is one of the coordinators and weekly participants in the workshop. He is also the person behind the organization Hood Success! Its mission is to promote skilled and talented individuals from the Hood by building support networks to motivate entrepreneurs, professionals, and entertainers in Sulphur Springs and other Hoods.

As Jeff states in the Hood Success blog: "HoodSuccess.com was created to inspire, motivate, and support anybody who had to overcome some kind of adversity in their life."

check it out here!
HoodSuccess.com

MC Hucaboom!!

Check out these original songs from one of our volunteers at the workshop, MC Hucaboom! Very conscious material straight out of the Springs, for the righteous ones!

(note: to download right click the titles/save link as!)

Hucaboom - "Confessions"


Hucaboom - "Got To Get It"


Hucaboom - "Hucaboom"


Hucaboom - "Sleeping Beauty"

MOSES HOUSE STREET MUSIC & TURNTABLES WORKSHOP PART 2 (JUNE 24, 2009)

Here's a video clip from the workshop on June 24, 2009. This time around we had dj James West donate his time, and his cd turntable setup for the kids to jam out to!

Da Raw Freestyle Sessions

The workshop is coming along with some meetings in the works to storm some new ideas to get the kids more interested and involved in the works! Thanks to Jeff from Hood Success for joining the team, and giving us some insights on how we can make the workshop more inviting to the local kids! Below are some music samples from the freestyle sessions we have been doing lately with the older kids in the group. Check out the players below for the raw freestyle sessions from June 17, 24, and July 8, 2009 !

Sharmaine - "Love Takes Time (Acapella)"

DL

Toby - "The Prayer"

DL

Sharmaine - "Stuck In Tha Ghetto"

DL

Sharmaine - "Stuck In Tha Ghetto (Acapella)"

DL

Street Music Workshop photos (June 24, 2009)

Here are some photos from the workshop on June 24, 2009. This is the freestyle side of things as they all took turns on the mic to hit their rhymes on a very spontaneous level.

Street Music Workshop Sessions (June 16, 2009)

This is the first video documentation of our new Street Music Workshop that takes place every Wednesday from 6pm-8pm at the North Tampa Rec Center in Sulphur Springs here in Tampa, FL. The goal behind the workshop is to nurture & bring out each kid's creative talent through the production and writing of their own individual rhymes, poetry, and songs. Many age groups from 5 years of age all the way through late teens and early twenties frequent the classes each week. In this video is one of the older participants, Toby, reciting one of his poems. Thanks go out to music instructors dj Chang Bang, Shunda K (Yo Majesty), Nilla Green, dj James West and Moses House educators Lance Arney, Maressa Dixon, Vanessa Hein (all three also from USF Anthropology), and Harold Richardson.