Our Origin Story

Our journey started in the year 2000 when we were asked to help promote and honor the life and works of Oscar Micheaux.  Oscar Micheaux, author and film director & producer, was the first African-American who successfully went from the silent film era to what was called the “talkies” (which is now modern cinema).  This was a non-profit event encompassing the State of Kansas Humanities Council, Barton County Kansas Historical Society, and other national non-profit organizations throughout the nation.  We were tasked with four projects for the event and were given just our ingenuity as our resources.  The four projects we worked on were to help staff the event, find a way to get funding for each of the individual projects, plan a memorial service, and create spaces throughout the community where people can go to learn more about Oscar Micheaux in a fun and educational environment. This would be a massive undertaking since we had no budget, no general guidance, and only a few people to help with this event.

We had to get creative with how we would meet our goals.  Our first task was to find a way to fund our projects fully.  We threw out every possible idea, from the practical to the most absurd.  After considering all the options, we landed on the wildest idea that would almost certainly fail if attempted.  It was a long shot but also the best chance to meet our needs.  Our plan was to reach out to known celebrities at the time to help bring awareness, donate items that we could auction off, and help endorse the event.  We knew this was a significant risk and had the potential of blowing up in our faces, but we had to try it anyway.  So we started the process to see what would happen.  We knew it would take some time to be able to see any results, positive or negative.  And not too much to our surprise, we started to see letters come in about how they admire our efforts but were unable to help at that time.  However, we didn’t lose hope of seeing positive results from our creative efforts.  After two weeks, we saw a steady flow of rejection letters, but then we started to see some interest from celebrities start to surface.  We were so happy to see a few positive results but didn’t realize that was just the beginning.

We were now getting letters and packages from celebrities donating items, sending money, and even a few decided to come to the event in-person.  We were so happy that our craziest idea had worked, even though many people told us it never would.  So now we had the funds to complete our projects, but our creativity didn’t stop there.  Staffing a few of our projects was a challenge.  So we decided to reach out to the community for help. Usually, these projects would be staffed with adults who would have some knowledge and history about Oscar Micheaux.  But instead, we wanted to get the youth involved.  We obtained a list of willing volunteers and gave them a history lesson about who Oscar Micheaux was and how he helped in progressing America forward.  This was one of our most fantastic ideas, as they found the project to be something they wanted to know more about.  Soon, we saw them not just volunteer for one project but for many projects throughout the entire event.

After the event ended, we learned that our crazy ideas and actions helped make the event a huge success.  Our crazy fundraising efforts covered the cost of our projects and the entire event, and we even donated the remaining amount to the county’s historical society.  Then for days and weeks afterward, we received praise and media coverage about our efforts during the event.  We were so happy that our crazy ingenuity paid off, making many people happy and enjoying the event.