Our organization, Black Exposed Entertainment, is making history by creating the first black-sanctioned Hip-Hop Concert during KW Oktoberfest 2024, "Hip-HopToberfest," and The Black Music Emerging Artist Awards which will occur on a secondary stage during the Hip-HopToberfest Concert.

Our committee consists of Hip-Hop Legend "Solitair" and R&B Singer Sean Jones (In Essence), and we are growing our black collective of artists for this project. Major performers like Maestro Fresh Wes, Solitair, Saukrates, and Kardinall Offishall will not only perform but curate the concert, and the goal is for all major artists to receive payment above and beyond their performance in an effort for this collective to solidify part ownership of the concert beyond a simple performance. Our goal is to have curating artists call on their artist friends like "Drake" to join the collective and collaborate and receive additional proceeds from these two major events happening in conjunction.

(BMEAA) The Black Music Emerging Artist Awards is the first and only national Black music award show with the sole purpose of celebrating the accomplishments of Black emerging musicians through their creativity, future growth, and impact on the Canadian music scene. This will allow Black emerging music artists an opportunity for recognition, to establish themselves in the Music Industry, and expand on opportunities for work and applying to larger award shows. 

Our goal is to expand the diversity in music in the Region through Hip-HopToberfest and BMEAA by creating a Black-driven weekend festival throughout Downtown Kitchener to kick off Oktoberfest and celebrate college and university homecoming.

We would like to collaborate with students to find and complete grant applications as we need funding upwards of $300,000 to facilitate.

This will involve several different steps for the students, including:

• Familiarizing themselves with our vision statement and a project we have defined.
• Developing a needs statement that characterizes the community problem and justifies the need for our project and funding.
• Identifying potential sponsors and funding opportunities that are a good fit for our organization and project.
• Improving the clarity and persuasiveness of our company's grant proposal writing.

Bonus steps in the process would also include:

• Finding funding for a Hip-HopToberfest/BMEAA documentary since this is the 1st Black Sanctioned event in the history of KW Oktoberfest and creating digital event simulation to include in grants and sponsorship proposals.

By the end of the project, students should demonstrate:

• Understanding of our organization’s values and purpose
• Understanding of the community project
• Identification of potential sponsors and funding sources
• Recommendations for improving our grant proposals

Bonus steps would include:

• Defining new community projects with appropriate scopes

Final deliverables should include

• A 10-minute presentation.

Students will connect directly with us for mentorship and education in the entertainment industry throughout the project. We will be able to provide answers to questions such as:

• Our mission and vision statement
• Our community projects and previous grant applications
• Input on choices, problems or anything else the students might encounter.
• *Our goal is to find funding opportunities for students who work on this project and to continue to hire them for future sustainability for this event as it is a MAJOR festival.
• We will offer students access to the entertainment industry and the resources and data that accompany this project.
• We will offer students the opportunity for paid sustainability for future events and allow them to sit on our student planning committee so they can use this experience to highlight their resumes for future employment.