Jackson Jambalaya

Money always attracts attention and $1.2 million arts grants are no exception.  The Surdna Foundation awarded a $1.2 million grant to the city of Jackson in 2020 but where the money went is well, anyone's guess.  The city of Jackson announced the grant on May 1, 2020: 

The City of Jackson announced today that they received a $1.2M award from the Surdna Foundation to work with the Community Aid & Development Corporation as part of a regranting and municipal partnership, to invest in artists from communities of color. The award will be distributed in equal parts over the course of three years.

This grant award will fund the Live. Impact. Create. Initiative, which is geared toward empowering people of color to use their artistry and voice to address social justice radically through the arts. The initiative will financially support fellows and offer training to develop leadership and social injustice resolution skills. Fellows will be tasked with curating projects which shed light on community needs and will partner with young creative people of color to cultivate unorthodox solutions to community problems. The project will launch in two phases. The first will be dedicated to gathering valuable community impact, followed by the selection of fellows and individual project implementation. 

The award is part of a three-year artist regranting initiative through Surdna’s Thriving Cultures program, which will support up to 260 projects by artists of color working with their communities around the country to imagine and practice racially just systems and structures. Through this award, regranting partners, such as the Community Aid & Development Corporation, will distribute Surdna’s funds to artists, artist collectives and small artist organizations and will provide direct, on-the-ground support and technical assistance.

“Art has been a means of influencing culture and speaking to social concerns for generations. And so, we’re happy for this partnership that allows us to continue a necessary conversation about how we confront issues of racial justice and inequity,” said Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba.

“As communities across our nation work together to survive COVID-19, artists are uniquely positioned to help us imagine and build a more just future in which we all can thrive,” said F. Javier Torres-Campos, Program Director of the Foundation’s Thriving Cultures program. “We are proud to partner with organizations that provide direct, on-the-ground support and technical assistance to artists of color. Our artist regranting cohort invests in the leaders and communities most impacted by injustice because they bring the necessary lived experience, strategies, and creativity to realize racially just societies.”

The City of Jackson joins a diverse cohort of 11 regranting partners, which are national and regional in focus, and include several learning clusters of organizations attempting to impact prevailing inequities in arts grantmaking in specific ways. Among the clusters are organizations focused on the U.S. South, local cross-sector partnerships between municipal governments and local arts nonprofits, and culturally specific intermediaries serving Latinx and Indigenous communities. The City of Jackson is a proud member of both the U.S. South learning cluster as well as the Cross-Sector Partnership learning cluster.

Community Aid & Development Corporation.  A rather generic-sounding, corporate name, right? Sort of like Universal Export.  Sources said the organization "processed" the grant for the city and GJAC in the first year.  Sundra was supposed to distribute $400,000 per year for three years to Jackson and CAD. The grant went to CAD which in turn "processed" the funds and distributed them to the Greater Jackson Arts Council.  A nice, nifty way to avoid public records laws, right?  Who is Community Aid & Development Corporation and why is it a partner? 

Community Aid & Development Corporation is a non-profit corporation in Georgia that operates the New Afrikan Scout camps for children and also collects contributions for the Malcom X Grassroots Movement. The company has operated in Georgia since 1989 although it was founded in California.  Website

The CEO is Watani Tyehimba. Make no mistake, Mr Tyehimba is the real deal, a black G. Gordon Liddy of sorts, no sarcasm intended.  He went to prison in the mid-1980's because he would not snitch.  Does anyone want to guess who his lawyer was?  The Los Angeles Times reported on August 12, 1987: 

U.S. District Judge William D. Keller ordered Tyehimba, who is under investigation for harboring the alleged mastermind of the 1981 robbery, held on civil contempt charges for as long as four more months--or until he agrees to provide handwriting samples requested by a Los Angeles federal grand jury which is probing local connections to the bloody East Coast holdup....

Tyehimba is a longtime activist in the New Afrikan People’s Organization and the New Afrikan Independence Movement, both of which advocate an independent state for blacks within the United States.

The 36-year-old former United Parcel Service mechanic and father of three was jailed Aug. 21, 1986, after he refused to provide a photograph of himself, fingerprints and samples of his handwriting to the grand jury.

Federal prosecutors say Tyehimba is believed to have assisted in harboring two alleged participants in the October, 1981, holdup, including the reputed mastermind, Mutulu Shakur, and an associate, Cheri Dalton.

Shakur has been identified by the FBI as the kingpin of the Black Liberation Army, which claimed responsibility for the holdup, and has been charged with a series of other Brink’s holdups between 1978 and 1982.

Arrested in Los Angeles on Feb. 11, 1986, Shakur is awaiting trial on federal conspiracy, racketeering, murder and armed robbery charges in connection with the holdup. Dalton, who with Shakur was on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted list, is still at large.

It was only through the “above ground” assistance of people like Tyehimba that Shakur was able to avoid apprehension for as long as he did and that Dalton was able to remain at large, Assistant U.S. Atty. J. Stephen Czuleger argued in court papers.

But in a largely uneventful hearing, Tyehimba’s attorneys, Dennis Cunningham and Chokwe Lumumba, argued that recent appellate court decisions require that Tyehimba be freed, unless there is evidence that continued incarceration would coerce him to provide what the grand jury is seeking..... Article

Sources said the Greater Jackson Arts Council received the distribution for the first two years of the grant but Surdna did not provide the funds for the third year.  Former Managing Director Jon Salem accused Executive Director Silbrina Wright of misusing the funds in a "whistleblower report" he submitted to the Board.  Mr. Salem claimed $400,000 was deposited into a new account at Community Bank for the (Sundra Foundation) project.  Mr. Salem reported "large amounts" were transferred from the project account to the general operating account for "other program spending, operations, and American Express payments (sounds familiar to Zoo followers).  Other checks were written to pay Ms. Wright's daughter who served as an intern.  Bank statements often were not properly reconciled.  Mr. Salem said on the account was overdrawn on August 1, 2022.  He claims he was met with hostility  when he questioned the overdraft.

Mr. Salem sued GJAC for wrongful termination.  He alleged in the complaint: 

15.   Plaintiff further questioned the use of Surdna Foundation grant funds to cover unrelated grant expenses and questionable expenses on the American Express Gold Card such as an unsanctioned trip to Walt Disney World in Florida that cost in excess of $110,000.00 and was intended to be recouped with Jackson Public Schools Funds. This inquiry also included a request for justification for GJAC covering travel expenses for Silbrina Wright's immediate and extended family members. Plaintiff was aware that because the $400,000.00 in Surdna Foundation funds were earmarked for the City of Jackson who has named GJAC as the managing agent for the grant, any improper use of these funds would jeopardize any further allocation of the same to the City of Jackson.

It is difficult if not impossible to verify the amount of Surdna funds received by GJAC since the organization has not filed a tax return since 2019.  GJAC's charity license expired in February.  Needless to say, record-keeping does not seem to be a priority at the Greater Jackson Arts Council.   

Kingfish note: Major thanks to a reader who provided a major tip in comments last week.