Images by Katrina S. Crawford

Hello Charleston & beyond!

Thank you for your attendance and we greatly appreciate every ounce of support received. No level of encouragement is too small. Building an Art scene from the ground-up will take a collective effort. 

Art has the power to bring us together on so many levels and your attendance and support are examples of our collective power.

This is a beautiful starting point and I am honored to serve our community in this capacity.

Purchasing art, sharing your exhibition pictures on social media, telling others about your experience and making sure that you were in the gallery are all tangible ways to support our movement. We are building a new reality in North Charleston, South Carolina. This is history in the making.

This great momentum will not stop here. If you are in the Atlanta area on January 28, 2023, I would love to see you at our next Atlanta & Friends Fine Art Exhibition! Spread the word as we bring some of Charleston’s most talented artists into Atlanta’s art world.

Okeeba Jubalo

OkeebaTheMayor.com

More About Sheena Allen

Sheena Allen was born in Terry, MS and is a graduate of the University of Southern Mississippi where she received a dual degree in Psychology (B.S.) and Film (B.A.). In 2011, Sheena started her first company, Sheena Allen Apps, and bootstrapped the app company to millions of downloads. In 2016, she started her second tech startup, CapWay, which gave Sheena the title as the youngest female in America to own and operate a digital bank. The fintech company connects underserved millennials and Gen Z to today’s cashless economy.  

In 2016, Sheena made her premiere in She Started It, a documentary film that follows five women around on their startup journey. In 2017, she released her first print book, The Starting Guide, about her early journey in tech, being a nontechnical founder, and business 101 tips.  

Sheena has been featured in various publications, including Inc Magazine and Black Enterprise. Sheena is a 2018 Business Insider Under 30 Innovator, part of the 2019 class of Forbes 30 Under 30 and Inc. Magazine 30 Under 30, and the 2019 Inc. Female Founders 100 list. 

How to bring humanity back to finance | Sheena Allen | TEDxSanFrancisco

Since 2008, more than 10,000 bank branches have closed in the U.S.; one out of every four Americans is underbanked. Contrary to popular belief, being financially underserved does not just hurt the poor, it also impacts communities and the larger economy as a whole.

In this eye-opening talk, fintech entrepreneur Sheena Allen, founder and CEO of CapWay, explains the importance of providing effective financial services to communities, and how she is using technology to ensure all communities have access to them.

Zandrina Dunning and Stephen Washington are the dynamic business duo arousing people’s musical taste buds in Charleston, South Carolina, and internationally. Dunning and Washington have the experience, the talent, and the accolades to set Charleston’s music scene on fire with soul-stirring concert events.

One of their most popular events is the P.U.R.E. Concert Series which Dunning and Washington started in 2020. Dunning and Washington created a platform that was intentional about helping artists to have a creative outlet through stage performance while allowing fans to immerse themselves in the artists’ original music. Even the series name, P.U.R.E., was given strategic thought, which stands for Peace, Unity, and Revival through Entertainment.

“There is no better feeling than having an audience of people sing your music and connecting with them in that way,” Dunning said. “We want people to see the bigger picture, be themselves, and love one another.”

The P.U.R.E. Concert Series is under the umbrella of The ZD Experience company, which Dunning founded in 2013. Dunning is the Chief Executive Officer and Artistic Director of The ZD Experience, and Washington serves as the Creative Director.

The P.U.R.E. Concert Series is a highly-anticipated event where fans travel across the country to gather, bond, and have fun. The P.U.R.E. Concert Series starts its third season in November 2022. The lineup of artists is always thrilled to perform during the concert series because it allows them a platform to express themselves in their most authentic way: through their music.

“I always say that there is enough room for everybody. I want people to understand that there is strength in numbers. Also, I want people to realize that their only competition is themselves,” Dunning said. “We want people to be authentic in who they are and intentional about collaborating with others. We want to guide people to understand that their story can influence the next person.”

P.U.R.E. SEASON 2: Emily Curtis featuring Stephen Washington

Life as I knew it changed forever on the evening of November 30, 2015, when a detective & coroner showed up at my house and told me unimaginable news.

There was a shooting and my only child, Tyrell, was murdered at the age of 23, along with his 22-year-old friend, due to senseless act of gun violence.

It was the day that I joined a club that no one wanted to be a part of – I became a gun violence survivor.

By Nailah Herbert

“Today wasn’t a good morning. I work at the Medical University of South Carolina, and I am part of the trauma team. I work with victims of gunshot wounds,” Keith Smalls tells me.

Smalls speaks candidly about his morning at the hospital, where he counsels several victims of gun violence each week. The weight of those counseling sessions is one of several reasons that drove him to found his organization, My Community’s Keeper Mentor Group (MCKMG), bringing the “village mentality” back to his community.

“Amid COVID-19 in July 2020, I founded MCKMG. Before then, I was always out volunteering my services and making connections. I wanted the community to know I was available to them,” Smalls says. “Now, MCKMG has become a group of men and women who are making an impact and changing lives.”

As the Founder and Executive Director of MCKMG, Smalls works tirelessly to revitalize urban communities in Charleston, South Carolina. The MCKMG programs give families, adult individuals, and at-risk youth a safe haven to nurture their talents, grow within their profession, and form meaningful relationships.

Misnomer: Correction Systems -Keith Smalls - TEDxCharleston