Social Magic Sous-Sous Kick-Off in Central City!
May 18th, 2012
Join us Tuesday evening for the 1st edition of our new Gris Gris Lab series… The Social Magic ™ Sous-Sous!
We are so very excited to begin this new project in Central City – the NOLA neighborhood home to Gris Gris Lab – with our friends and neighbors at Ashe Cultural Center.
IF YOU LIVE, WORK or OWN PROPERTY in CENTRAL CITY, WE STRONGLY ENCOURAGE YOU TO COME!
As we are enjoying the many positive and constructive developments happening along the revival of the Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard corridor, we still face many challenges in our Central City neighborhoods… join us in uniting to begin re-building and beautifying our community with YOUR ideas starting Tuesday, May 22! That’s right – we will VOTE on ONE project proposal that will receive micro-funding THAT NIGHT!
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WHAT IS A SOUS-SOUS?
A Sous-Sous is a community exercise in cooperative economics, direct democracy, and locally-designed neighborhood development.
Sous-Sous, or in traditional Caribbean economics, a Sou-Sou, is, in essence, a private savings-and-loan plan among several individuals and/or families in a given community. Each member pays in an identical monetary share on a regular basis, forming a pool of money which ideally grows into a large cash sum for one member’s use. This process is repeated until all members have received their individual monetary benefit from the pool. Often the process is then started again in rotation in order to continue to further the progress of each member’s personal success.
This cultural practice has continued into modern day in large part due to African, Caribbean and South American people not being able to obtain quality savings, loan or checking accounts with major banks for long periods of time, as well as maintained as a way to keep a local community’s resources circulating within its own neighborhoods and groups, rather than be skimmed or controlled by outside parties.
The element of direct democracy inherent to a Sous-Sous is crucial to its sustainability as a viable neighborhood development methodology, as residents actively participate in project proposals, decide which projects gets funded by the collective, and eventually monitor the progress and accountability of their fellow members’ locally-funded individual neighborhood projects. There are no mayors, no council officers, no judges – other than all of the active community members themselves – who vote directly on which projects get the group’s pooled funds, and have the opportunity to propose any neighborhood project idea they choose to the monthly Sous-Sous group.
The social benefit of a Sous-Sous series is the bringing together of neighbors on a regular basis to break bread and get to know one another better and discuss their community. Ideally, the food and drink at the Sous-Sous is locally-sourced and/or prepared by residents and/or business owners of the neighborhood as well.
WHAT IS SOCIAL MAGIC?
Social Magic is Gris Gris Lab’s trade secret. It is the method or process by which we as an organizational group achieve our goals as well as assist or guide our clients and partners in achieving their goals.
Social Magic is a holistic approach to problem-solving and bridge-building. It merges cooperative economics, inclusive social change, applied anthropology, urban agriculture, local sourcing, alternative healing practices, urban planning and independent community education with the arts in each of our endeavors or projects.
For more about Social Magic and Gris Gris Lab, please visit:
http://thegrisgrislab.com/
http://grisgrislab.com/
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SOUS-SOUS with SIDE-BY-SIDE
For the launch of the new Sous-Sous series in Central City, we are proud to partner with long-time community leader, Ashe Cultural Center and its Side-by-Side program.
Ashe’s Side-by-Side program, led by Baba Luther Gray, was developed not long after Katrina as a meeting and sharing mixer where local musicians and similar artists can learn how to write good artist biographies, become knowledgeable about booking, publishing and licensing contracts, obtain quality portrait photos and create effective business cards and communication skills.
This process is of dire need to the numerous talented musicians and producers in New Orleans who are taken advantage of, under-paid, or simply not previously able to self-capitalize on their own art and work.
Both Gris Gris Lab and Ashe Cultural Center see the natural link between building and strengthening our physical community along with the people in our community through this process of skill-sharing and community project-building.
In this way, the kick-off edition on May 22 will feature 1 hour of Side-by-Side activities and 1 hour of Sous-Sous presentations, practice and voting.
For more info on Side-by-Side and more about Ashe CAC, please visit:http://ashecac.org/
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DO YOU HAVE AN IDEA FOR A SMALL-SCALE COMMUNITY PROJECT IN CENTRAL CITY?
DO YOU WANT TO VOTE ON WHICH OF THE PRESENTED COMMUNITY PROJECTS TAKES HOME THE SOUS-SOUS $$$ POT?
DO YOU WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE SIDE-BY-SIDE NOLA MUSICIAN PROGRAM?
…then join us on Tuesday, May 22!
6:00pm: Sign-In, Food & Refreshments
6:15pm: Welcome, Begin Side-by-Side
7:00pm: Special Guest Speaker on Local Small Business Incubators
7:15pm: Sous-Sous Introduction & Presentations
8:00pm: Voting + 1st Central City Sous-Sous Winner Announced
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$5 Suggested Donation = gets you soup, salad, bread and a VOTE
$25 Side-by-Side Annual Memberships Available
All Ages | All Are Welcome
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QUESTIONS?
Don’t live or work in Central City but want to participate?
No problem! Come down and join us! We hope you will be inspired to start a Sous-Sous in YOUR neighborhood!
Bring A Friend!
Remember: the more folks that attend the Sous-Sous, the more money there is in the community pot, which means the bigger and better the projects we can fund… EVERYONE’s $5 GOES INTO THE COMMUNITY POT – which YOU then vote on!
(AND of course includes the delicious, healthy light meal!)
Strength in Numbers!
Invite a friend, a family member, and neighbor, a co-worker… come see how it works!
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CONTACT:
Interested in Pitching YOUR Community Project Idea at this Sous-Sous or the next one?
Reach out to us!
soussous@grisgrislab.com
info@grisgrislab.com
504.872.0577
We can’t wait to see you Tuesday!
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TUESDAY, MAY 22
6:00pm – 8:00pm
Ashe Cultural Center
1712 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd.
New Orleans, LA 70113
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