Ellington

I moved to Belhaven a little over three years ago from The Country Club neighborhoods of Northeast Jackson. I had discovered the unique and somehow unknown appeal of downtown a little over a year before I graduated high school. I was fascinated with everything that Belhaven and Fondren offered. I dove headfirst into Jackson. I think most people would agree with me when I say that Jackson is sort of ass-backward.Anyone who has moved here from a larger city understands what I'm saying.We have the capacity, the venues, and, on top of all of that, we have a huge untapped creative talent.What we have lacked, my friends, is the motivation to do anything with it, even as we complain incessantly about having nothing to do in Jackson.

Enter The Collective.

We are a small group of young people who live in Jackson. We feel that the constant complaints should be met head-on with a sort of cultural revolution. What if there was an organization in Jackson that specialized in finding artistic and musical talent and matching it with venues to start an artistic renaissance of sorts? What if we could quash the feeling of boredom in this town and bring a new group of people up to the plate, people who truly care where Jackson's future will be and are willing to do something about it? I'm happy to say that this has happened.

Casey Parks, Jennifer Barker, Dave Carner and I were four completely different people from four different walks of life who saw the opportunity for a change of our city. It all started on a bulletin board called Friendster, which is a popular online community we all knew each other from. We started talking about the need for a creative revolution, and people in our social networks started to respond in droves. Honestly, we weren't really sure what we were going to do; we weren't sure where to start. We just wanted to light the spark and hope for a wildfire to break out and spread the heat of our passion for this town all the way from Fondren to downtown to West Jackson.

Creative Wave, now known as The Collective, met for the first time at Flashback Video Café on North State. In a way, that was our first project: We truly believe that the first act of reviving this city is to support the local businesses. Flashback is an amazing indie/foreign video and DVD store.

The first meeting was sparse, with only us four, a few friends and Donna Ladd from the Jackson Free Press. The ideas began to flow, though, and a plan slowly started to form. We all agreed that we wanted to give everyone who wanted it the chance to show their talent, and by doing this it would bring endless opportunities to get people downtown again.

Soon, the JFP had their annual Best Of party, and we were invited and determined as ever to get our purpose to the hundreds of influential people who would be attending. We arranged for a new meeting date and handed out hundreds of cards over the span of the night. We never dreamed the reaction we would have, or the chain of events that would soon follow. The response was overwhelming, to say the least.

The Jackson community seemed thrilled to hear of our newly formed organization. We had dozens and dozens of people, of various ages and walks of life, offer their support and help toward our first big event, which will take place Thursday, March 11, at Hal & Mals. The free art showing and concert (18 and older) will collect canned food donations at the door for admission; all food and contributions, beyond our small costs, will go to Stewpot. We're also planning to start a Web site with "Collective Approved" events listed weekly.

We're really seeing the power of a handful of people to make something big happen. But without the support of you, the readers of the JFP, and the curators of this great city, none of this would be possible. So on behalf of The Collective I thank you Jackson for your love, your support, and most of all, your ideas.

The ride has just begun. Jackson, get ready. We'll be in touch.

Jessica Mizell has just joined the JFP as a marketing and promotions intern.

Previous Comments

ID

84283

Comment

This was an amazing event last night! Cheers to Jen, Dave, Casey and Jessica! The place was packed; lots of art sold (thanks to several Lounge Listers, we might add); hundreds of dollars and boxes of canned goods were collected for Stewport; and contagious positive energy was in the air. Look out, Jackson, here comes The Collective. We're proud of y'all. Keep up the good work.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2004-03-12T14:06:13-06:00

ID

84284

Comment

Had a great time myself... Was nice to see so many new AND familiar faces supporting the arts in the city.

Author

kaust

Date

2004-03-12T14:38:18-06:00

ID

84285

Comment

from a&w: 'words can't describe last night and there aren't enough thank you's to pass around...i'm still a bit dazed by the whole thing...it was just, well, beautiful...it is hard to type anything about the success of the event without it seeming self-congratulatory, but know that jess, jen, casey, and i were just another cog in the wheel of a much larger, glorious machine...thank you jackson, thanks so much....photo gallery from the event coming soon...i'm heading for the country...'

Author

dvc

Date

2004-03-12T15:06:26-06:00

ID

84286

Comment

Yeah, Dave, definitely post a link here to the photo gallery! Excellent job, guy. Y'all rock.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2004-03-12T15:22:08-06:00