Raining Pennies from Heaven
As a nonprofit, it seems counterintuitive to have money be such a central focus for the organization. But to preserve this amazing historic site or do any good with it, we really must make raising as much money as possible a priority.
The BIG Storm
Over the last few years, we have had some tremendous success with the African American Civil Rights Preservation Program through the National Parks Service. This grant program selects Civil Rights significant locations to help preserve and restore. Two successive awards have allowed us to make the necessary code compliancy updates to the Dreamland Ballroom and Taborian Hall. Our first award came in 2018. The nine years before that, Friends of Dreamland raised money in many ways.
The Driving Rain
Our primary fundraiser has always been Dancing into Dreamland. It is a wonderful night of dancing and revelry in the Dreamland Ballroom showcasing contestants dancing to win favor of both the audience and a panel of judges. The night is also full of all the usual gala activities: silent auction, raffle, drinks, and hors d’oeuvres.
The Steady Patter
Pave the Way is our longest running campaign. Large and small pavers are sold and inscribed with whatever the donor would like. The pavers are then set into the concrete sidewalk in front of the Taborian Hall. When the elevator addition is complete, these bricks will be relocated to the new main entrance to ballroom.
The Pop-Up Shower
Go Fund Me campaigns, concerts, drive-in movies, art shows, mailers…we’ve pretty much done it all! So, if you are at all interested in contributing to the mission of our organization, there is a way! You can contribute any amount; nothing is too small or too big to a “general fund.”
Don’t Be a Fair Weathered Friend
Monies granted by the National Parks Service are given specifically for construction. Unfortunately, the ballroom needs plenty of other updates, including modern lighting and sound for the house and stage. Maintenance alone in the ballroom costs several thousand dollars a year. The list of “dream” restoration projects is quite lengthy. Once accessible, the ballroom will be able to host a variety of historic and cultural events and programs that celebrate the rich legacy of Dreamland while building up and connecting our larger community. The Dreamland Ballroom will always need its Friends to sustain, honor, and guide it into the future.
Keep Dreaming, Matthew McCoy
The Rainy Day Fund
Money, Money, Money, Money
Think of all the phrases about money you grew up with: “Money talks.” “Nothing good in this world comes cheap.” “You get what you pay for.” “Nothing is truly free.” I could go on …
A Helping Hand
Before Emancipation, northern born Rev. Moses Dixson traveled through the south in his youth. It was an especially risky journey for a young black man. During his travels he saw firsthand the horrors of slavery. He was inspired to help enslaved blacks in any way he could, so he and eleven of his friends and colleagues formed a mutual aid foundation called The Order of Twelve, the Knights and Daughters of Tabor. The Tabors (and many fraternal groups like them) were essential in organizing the droves of recently freed slaves and establishing communities in the cities and towns where they gathered, in this case 9th Street in Little Rock.
Making Something Out of Nothing
Many of the formerly enslaved were skilled laborers and craftsmen. With the organization of African American fraternal societies, the tent and shack areas where laborers settled quickly developed into brick and motor districts. Although the community itself had building skills, money for material and labor was necessary. Organizations like the Tabors required dues for membership. Reconstruction did provide jobs for former slaves, so these men and women did begin receiving small incomes by which they could pay the dues necessary for the insurance offered by the Tabors. Some of those member benefits included life insurance, funeral plots and widow’s stipend.
Buildings that Build the Community
Membership dues (along with money from their AME church affiliate) allowed the Tabors to invest in the community by constructing buildings that housed restaurants, hospitals, and offices for other professional services. The Tabors and others helped blacks in the late 19th and early 20th century access services they could not get from the government or other white-owned private agencies. These essential services created a safety net that allowed not only the individual, but the whole community to begin to accumulate wealth.
The Tabor Spirit is Alive and Well
The community building of the Tabors is the legacy by which the Friends of Dreamland modeled its own mission. While we will never replicate the good work of the Knights of Tabor, we will strive to be like them by pledging our nonprofit status and donated dollars to provide something better for our community. Today, our mission manifests in equal parts of reestablishing what was lost here on 9th Street (what the Tabors helped build from scratch) and creating something entirely new.
Keep Dreaming, Matthew McCoy
The end and the beginning ..
You’ve got to know where you’ve been…to get where you’re going
April showers signal the arrival of spring, the season of rebirth and change. This month we will be looking at the growth of the Friends of Dreamland and their impact on future of the Dreamland Ballroom.
The End of an Era
50 years ago During the 1970’s, the formally thriving 9th Street community became rapidly destitute, although many buildings and residences where still present. I spoke with a man in the parking lot of Taborian Hall just the other day. He recounted living in Honeycutt’s Hotel on the corner of 9th and Izard Streets during the early-mid ‘70s, when he grew up. He spoke of a still bustling community: the old women sitting on the porch of Honeycutt’s shucking peas all summer; the kids (himself included) grabbing the old bikes outside the auto shop behind Taborian Hall and coasting down 9th Street’s slight incline; and the Honeycutt brothers themselves, who made sure he, a 7-year-old boy, had a place to sleep and that their neighborhood grocery store had fresh vegetables straight from their very own farm. During this decade, many of the businesses and buildings were closed and boarded up, and economic opportunity was scarce. Yet still the core community lived together, supporting each other.
Urban Renewal Destroys
40 years ago Urban Renewal efforts began. Meant to revitalize downtown and bring code compliance to many neglected structures, Urban Renewal mostly robbed blacks of their assets and separated their communities. After the construction of I-630, none of the promised renewal was scheduled, leaving 9th Street largely abandoned. Taborian Hall sat empty for the next several years.
Through the Eyes of Love
30 years ago In the early 1990s, Kerry McCoy bought Taborian Hall for her growing company. She says about the building, “It was love at first sight.” The building was in such disrepair, it took several trips to the building for her to view the whole thing. It was not until the third visit that she found a path up to the Dreamland Ballroom. She describes the decision to buy Taborian as a spiritual one. Something bigger than herself moved her to save this building that was only a few months away from the wrecking ball.
Kerry’s first renovation was to roof the building and by 1992 her company’s offices occupied the first floor. It would be another decade before she could do any significant structural work to the Dreamland Ballroom. During this time, old black men and women who grew up on 9th Street would come to the front door, peering and popping in to see what became of this central feature of their former business district. It was through their stories that Kerry learned about the history of the building and what 9th Street had been to so many people.
Full disclosure, and this is probably obvious to anyone who has kept up with these posts and my blog, Kerry is my mother. When she bought this building, she was actually pregnant with me. So, I have always argued that the purchase of Taborian was some kind of crazy nesting impulse, but I won’t pretend to know anything about “baby brain.”
Business Takes a Back Seat
10 years ago It didn’t take long for Kerry to realize that the third floor was going to require more work than the others. The ballroom space was not particularly useful to her company, but she refused to turn it into apartments or something more inherently profitable than a 3rd story historic ballroom with no elevator access. Searching for a way to balance her business sense with her preservationist soul, she found the nonprofit, Friends of Dreamland in 2009. The first couple of years of fundraising helped to make the ballroom sound enough to host the 2012 Dancing into Dreamland.
Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll continue the story of the Friends of Dreamland and the influence the legacy of the Taborian Hall and the Dreamland Ballroom have on our mission.
Keep Dreaming, Matthew McCoy
DONATE at dreamlandballroom.org. CONTACT us to learn more about tours, events, or whatever interests you about the Dreamland Ballroom.