KCRW Presents AMP Music Summit Summer 2020, July 29

A Letter from the Curators of KCRW Presents AMP Music Summit Summer 2020:

"We're looking for new heroes. We have space available. Now is the time to celebrate heroic qualities of artists, executives and thought leaders from music, storytelling, technology, law, and culture. We are here to recognize these qualities and amplify their impact. We invite you to gather with us at KCRW Presents AMP Music Summit Summer 2020 on Wednesday, July 29, 2020 to share in these stories about the culture-shifting changes inspired by COVID and the powerful movement towards racial justice, diversity and inclusion.

AMP Music Summit is a place where we can join in important conversations with people across perspectives, time zones, and platforms. For us, these important conversations are about culture, music, art, technology and forces bigger than any individual - most recently, the forces of COVID-19 and systemic racism. AMP is our livestreamed (mostly) video documentary of life today-a magazine with interactive pages created and colored with emerging communication technologies.

Dave Brooks, Billboard's Senior Correspondent Live + Touring, will join CAA agent Joe Hadley to discuss developing the opportunity and touring economy in Africa as nations work to build the venue architecture to support superstar artists, from countries at home and abroad. They'll also discuss how the continent has managed viral pandemics past and present. Hadley represents many of the world's leading musicians, including A$AP Rocky, Beyoncé, Jorja Smith, NAO, Tom Misch, NAV, SuperDuperKyle, Lily Allen, GoldLink, and Smino, among others.

As major cities become COVID Restricted Zones, smaller cities offer new possibilities and cheaper start-up costs for creative endeavors. AMP co-founder Simon Rust Lamb will host a conversation with creative bad-ass and lawyer Tobi Parks and the visionary Dr. Lester Shaw. Tobi left Brooklyn for Des Moines to build xBk, a creative arts venue, where she's also the talent buyer, and to start Station 1 Records. Dr. Lester Shaw's Tulsa-based A Pocketful of Hope non-profit acquired the derelict Big 10 Ballroom, a staple venue on the Chitlin Circuit in the 50s and 60s. Since 2007, he's been working to restore this landmark and bring it back to life as a cultural and community center in time for next year's centennial of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.

The Tulsa Race Massacre's history and its impact on the present demands attention, even if many of us only learned about it for the first time through HBO's The Watchmen. That's why AMP will feature a conversation with highly accomplished comic book writers Chuck Brown, David Walker, and Sanford Greene, co-creators of the Eisner Award-nominated comic series Bitter Root, to discuss how they took inspiration from the massacre but tell a different story. Spoiler alert - there are monsters and Black Panther Director Ryan Coogler already signed on to produce the movie. We're going to discuss the importance of using fiction and stories to both popularize unpleasant truths.

Both our past and present demand change on many levels. Non-profits often lead the way with social and systemic change but often struggle with insufficient resources to accomplish their missions. Amy Malin, founder of creative agency Trueheart, concocts collaboration between brands, celebrities, and non-profits to amplify messages and missions. She will walk us through case studies with Ryan Devlin, founder of This Brand Saves, Anthony Crouts, Tencent Games Sr. Director of Marketing, and Ashley Iaconetti Haibon & Jared Haibon - Bachelorette and Bachelor in Paradise.

Creating access to opportunity is a key component of breaking cycles of systemic inequality. We're spotlighting Creative Futures co-founders Jai Al-Attas and Yahniie Bridges. They will host an interactive workshop with two program fellows to explore how companies can break the cycle of systemic inequality by providing opportunities to talent from underserved communities, particularly those who were formerly incarcerated.

Music can also be a force for creative and economic change. It might just be time to move to Huntsville. Billboard Dance Director Katie Bain will talk with Huntsville, Alabama Mayor Tommy Battle, Sound Diplomacy's Founder & CEO Shain Shapiro, PhD., and a member of Huntsville's Music Board about why Huntsville has decided to pursue growing its music economy and community and how they are going about the process.

We'll also meet artist Prescott McCarthy, who got his start building large-scale art installations at music festivals like Electric Forest...and now he's taking everything he learned to start real-world art-driven communities in tiny towns in wide open spaces like Landers, California and Richfield, Utah. He is rebuilding derelict buildings with an eye towards nothing short of total transformation for the architecture and the people who come to visit.

AMP Music Summit co-founder Josh Levine will talk with Laura Cathcart Robbins about race, allyship, and the risks and rewards of what it means to step into the public eye. Laura's the host of the popular podcast The Only One In the Room and an outspoken blogger whose Huffington Post articles include "White Women, I'm Glad You're Showing Up. But I'm Not Sure I Trust You Just Yet" and "13 Microaggressions Black People Deal With All The Time."

We're all looking forward to re-opening our public spaces so we're traveling to a conversation about Florida, who has taken an aggressive stance in re-opening. We'll dive into the calculus of re-opening with labor law expert An Ruda in conversation with leading Miami entertainment lawyer Leslie Zigel and John Santoro, owner and operator of Tampa's Ritz Ybor nightclub, Sunset Events and Sunset Music Festival.

We're also inviting a few founders to come share their visions for their new companies, including former Beatport CEO Matt Adell pitching his new guide to the flood of livestreams -- On.Now.TV.

In our space, we'll spotlight the people who are becoming our heroes and share our unedited conversations with them, and we invite you to join us and participate. We'll make mistakes in the moment and connect in truth. 100% original source material - no deep-fakes, no spin.

This is where we're heading and we hope you'll join us as we turn the page into the future of culture, community and collaboration. We're excited for you to meet our new heroes and hear their stories that are creative, inspirational and highlight opportunity in the face of COVID-19 and racial justice.

Your AMP Music Summit Mediamixers,

Simon Rust Lamb

Josh Levine

Seth Combs"