Sharing Festival: A Participatory Experience for Exceptional Children + Their Communities
(1) Festival/Special Event Description — 300 words (285)
We are thrilled to introduce the 2027 “Sharing Festival”: A Participatory Experience for Exceptional Children and Their Communities, featuring Durham-based artists partnering to honor and include all children in the local cultural histories, memorable methods, and joy of creative arts programming.
Where, When:
Festival Saturday October 23, 2027, 1-5 pm
Workshops: Saturdays Sept 25th, Oct 2nd, 9th & 16th, 10am-12pm
Lyon Park Center (backup W.G. Pearson, Holton)
Who:
Participants: Exceptional children with physical, developmental, neurological differences/disabilities; their parents & families; educators & guardians
Audiences: Exceptional children + their communities, broader supporters across Durham, Triangle, Triad
Artists, Producers: Durham/Triangle-born creative professionals, artists and arts-leaders—note budget attachment with full description. Partners: Durham nonprofits/regional coalitions serving EC communities, neighborhood organizations, regional schools (EC, COPE programs), regional businesses.
What, Why, How:
Workshop Series (4 Saturdays)
(1)Somatic Music; (2)Meditation + Visual Arts; (3)Accessible Dance/Movement; (4)Healing Theater + Community Stories
EC communities receive:
Methods supporting personal grounding/regulation participants can return to in homes, classrooms, public spaces
Social connection in sensory-adaptive ways
Creative expression/witness in affirming, exploratory, positive environments that center their wellbeing
Distilling learned wisdoms from exceptional children’s/daily supporters’ perspectives to shape new art pieces for culminating festival day
Sharing Festival (1-day event)
Interactive Fanfare/Opening—overview what’s to come, multi-option participatory/audience as co-hosts vs. spectacle-based; celebratory welcome of workshop participants/artists, local vendors, organizations
Performances—4 workshops shape Festival pieces with professional artist-facilitators + participants; regional guest performances
Vendors—local businesses, food/beverage
Installation—Learning, listening, tactile, art stations; health screenings; nonprofits/local practitioners for supportive EC info/gatherings, gift cards for healing/daily needs
Purpose—Ensuring resources, chances to belong are reaching underserved EC communities who may otherwise miss them; forming safe spaces, memorable gatherings with skills/methods to return to; continuing legacy of Dr. Baba Chuck Davis’ Children’s Sharing Festival (Durham 1984-86) + expanding to exceptional children whom griot Baba McDaniel specializes in supporting through the arts
(2) Goal 1: Encourages engagement with the arts, history, and/or culture — 300 words (298)
Non-traditional Arts, History, Culture Engagement: (“Why/How” in #1). Our workshop-based arts programming is not merely entertainment but centers lived experiences: wisdom emerging from challenges shared and joy emerging from connection among EC children, families, educators/guardians. Each resulting art piece–live performances + installation experiences—in the Sharing Festival will partner with community advisory + local EC coalition organizations on a featured, workshop participant-identified theme. Partners: West End Community Foundation, COPE EC Programs Coordinators, Kings + Queens DPS, additional proposed across regional schools (public traditional, charter, private, home, avocational), building on team’s prior collaborative experiences in Duke’s Dance for Healing, Special Theater Arts Raleigh, Reality Ministries, Durham Advocates for EC, Exchange Family Center + more.
Innovative Programming, Artistic Quality: Our team has extensive festival planning experience, performance facilitation expertise with diverse participants on health/educational/community justice themes, & professional touring/hosting track records for regular events in our fields with 100-1,000+ attendees. We serve audiences at K-12 schools; universities/colleges; healthcare systems + professional development conferences; nonprofits, community coalitions + more, with respective statewide, national + global reach.
Baba McDaniel annually reaches 1,000s of regional audience members in schools (K-16), foundations’, corporations’ events, and festivals as a renowned performer/leader across the Triangle, NC, and nationally (30+ years); and teaches (15+ years) as a beloved Dance Specialist and EC specialist, Kings/Queens group facilitator for DPS Black + Brown students with year-round sessions + programming for Durham Parades + Black History Month (including local histories performance installation at Murray-Massenburg); reaching 200+ new students daily each school year. Children (elementary to high school) have written into IEPs the need to visit Mr. Roberts for a successful school day. He also facilitates community performance creation in dance classes (Lyon Center) with regular teenage participants with EC diagnoses + guardians reaching a mix of 15-40 participants weekly (20+ years).
(3) Goal 2 - Local Economic Impact — 200 words (200)
Economic Impact to Durham—Sharing Festival gathers 350-750 total participants over 5 Saturdays. Purchases boost participating onsite-vendors--food/beverage, local businesses/practitioners with services benefitting EC communities; added regional Triangle/Triad visitors' impact visiting Durham-based meal-providers, small businesses, transport-based services before/after events.
Marketing Mix—regional + local recognition, attendance-boosting efforts through staff/volunteer-supported social media design/campaigns, physical + digital media distribution amongst wide range of grassroots partners + business sponsors. Marketing spans all phases through deeply-embedded, neighborhood-inclusive, schools-based outreach via EC-connected staff/groups, and guidance/outreach via our Community Advisory Board (proposed members: Dosali Reed-Bandele, West End Foundation, Dr. Lynne Howard, Murray-Massenburg, Javaris Quinn, AP COPE Program, Jerry Soletro, DPS EC Facilitator, Rev. Stacy Grove, HSSR, Jairous L. Parker Sr., Parker Creative Designs + 2-3 EC-specific nonprofits).
Hiring local artists/producers builds on a strong record of reaching diverse, engaged, repeat audiences in our respective careers (5/6 Durham/Triangle born/lifelong residents, ages 25-60): Creative Director, Griot/Emcee: Baba McDaniel Roberts; Workshop + Festival Leaders: Frederick “Ibrahim” Strauther (Somatic Music), Assata Nataki Goff (Contemplative + Visual Arts, Project Manager/Community Engagement), Donnay Edmund (Meditation + Social Change), Baba McDaniel Roberts (Accesible Dance/Movement & Cultural Histories Theater), Dr. Marie Garlock (Healing Theater & Embodying Our Stories; Production Manager); Alphabet Krew (Impact/Insights)--confirmed to track attendance throughout.
(4) Goal 3: Supports innovative events that create vibrancy for Durham’s communities. — 300 words (298)
Our programming uniquely builds on a cherished Durham legacy, the “Children’s Sharing Festival” initiated by Dr. Baba Chuck Davis and community-based leadership of Alayanfe Youth Arts Company (alongside his roles as founder of DanceAfrica festivals nationwide and 1 of America’s 100 National Dance Treasures). From 1984-86, Alayanfe and children’s-based arts partners performed original and global diasporic theater, poetry, dance, music with supportive public witness in city recreational venues. Like Alayanfe alum Baba McDaniel’s, Dr. Davis’ legacy is shaped by meaningful, integrative welcome of elders, youth, and people with disabilities into performances and community classes alike.
2027 Creative Director Baba McDaniel reflects on how he’d say it with young people: “Vibrancy can be the pulse of movement we do together—vibration in the beat of the drum or song. Vibrancy is the beauty of the past and wherever you are going–forward, never backward in how you act. …It’s children participating in something exciting to them with a sense of ‘Oh! I can do this!’ Like kids who finally learn math through movement with me when they never did on paper–children pulled out of other classes all day, but with no outlier behaviors once in our arts-based educational environment! Children can feel believed in–glad to be with peers. Alive with a magnetism–rooted in them realizing they are being treated as a whole child. Because every EC child does not yet get that across every school, home or community setting.”
CAB and participant input will shape all design/implementation, with programming responsive and relevant to all neighborhoods of Durham. Workshops and performances promote community pride as they offer spaces where EC children and their supporters can share with peers the truths they may not otherwise have space to discern and receive so directly, in jointly-held spaces taking time to center and honor them.
(5) Goal 4: Promotes equity, diversity, inclusion, access and accessibility. — 300 words (296)
Sharing Festival’s core reason for existence is “an arts-based inclusion platform for the whole child.”
Alongside Spanish translation (via a supporting nonprofit), we carry Baba Chuck’s love of Swahili principles: our 2027 team clarified programs are guided by an ethic of harambee, “pull together”, watoto “children” at the center, art pursued with neema na tindo “grace and inspired style”, and belief in tunaweza pamoja “we can do this together”.
Assata Nataki Goff, Community Engagement Manager/Workshop Facilitator, notes that the festival centers access through centrally-situated, ADA-compliant locations and parking, and “also by thinking about healing and care in ways that are grounded in people’s everyday lives. We are specifically activating equity through funds that support travel fees and food for participation for events, to make it actually possible for families with too little time and strained incomes.” Alongside free admission to all workshops and performances—and accessing useful resources amidst community, business, and institutionally-supported memories—these tangible strategies ensure people in under-resourced communities come first, not last. Diversity is rooted in the arts team’s broad diasporic experiences and truths that inform practices of care for exceptional communities, and ensure our programs center all races, creeds, genders, and gender expressions in EC communities.
As an impact/insights advisor frames it, “Bringing new experiences to Durham audiences, we are also grounded in both recent-past and ancient traditions. Equitable, lasting inclusion shapes our vision: for EC children participating to feel the comfort of belonging…where confidence not necessarily taught by default in school/social settings is found by spending time with EC communities’ insights/desires. That encourages advocacy and change in different ways than having to constantly adopt and adapt to spaces not specifically built for them. We also seek a whole-family model for EC–they deserve to have something created from their experiences, in their image.”
(6) Goal 5: Demonstrates organizational efficiency and effectiveness— 200 words (199)
How
Planning team (listed above, budget attachment) – regular meetings, community building through all phases of development, implementation:
Phase 0, Funding: August 2026–Jan 2027
Phase 1, Development: January, February 2027
Gather the board
First meeting
Ideation
Phase 2, Planning: March, April 2027
Scheduling
Budgeting
Formulate team/ subgroups
Phase 3, Organizing: May, June, July 2027
Assigning tasks
Synthesizing from teams and subgroups
Finalizing partnerships
Finalizing resource needs (materials, staff)
Phase 4, Production: August, September 2027
Marketing and Publicity
Finalization of projects (contracts, installation building)
Finalization of performances (dress and tech rehearsals)
Finalization of partner, volunteer and vendor logistics (site plan)
Phase 5, Activation: October 2027
Set up
Event Activation
Participant Survey Capture
Breakdown
Team celebration/report back
Report generation
Outreach
Schools – visits to schools, bringing in educators, families, students, previewing in Spring + Fall
Community organizations + partners – arts, exceptional children supportive nonprofits, vendors
Marketing – August full-on marketing, early announcements April to July events, regional outreach to Triangle, Triad
Supporting community participation
Offering gas stipends, transportation cards for 5 events
Free food for workshops, events
Community Advisory Board, Volunteers, Liaisons:
Regional Education, Community Centers & Recreation
Cultural Organizations, Community-Based Organizations & Nonprofits Serving EC Families
Performing Artists & Arts-Based Service Organizations
Local Businesses & Event Production Professionals
Additional Submission Information - Submittable
Is the applicant a not-for-profit entity as defined in the RFP document?
Yes
Does the festival and/or special event prominently feature arts, culture, or history as defined in the RFP?
Yes
Is the not-for-profit entity registered with the City of Durham as a Vendor?
No
ORGANIZATION INFORMATION
Please tell us more about your organization and upcoming festival or special event.
What is the name of the festival or special event?
"Sharing Festival": A Participatory Experience for Exceptional Children and Their Communities
What are the dates of the festival/special event?
10/23/2027
Additional space if needed
Pre-Workshops Sep 25, Oct 2, 9, 16, Fest Oct 23
Event Location
Lyon Park Center
Festival website
n/a
What is the legal name of the applying not-for-profit entity? Please include any d.b.a
HeartSpace Spiritual Resources
What is the applying not-for-profit entity's Federal Tax ID Number?
26-3362088
Not-for-profit entity website
https://www.heartspacespiritualresources.org
Not-for-profit entity mailing address
523 Summit Lae Drive
Apex, NC 27523
US
Festival primary contact name
McDaniel Roberts
Festival primary contact job title
Dance Specialist, EC Case Manager, Harambee Collective + Freelance Artist
Festival primary contact preferred pronouns
he/him/his
Phone
+19198841688
Not-for-profit executive or not-for-profit fiscal agent representative contact name
Rev. Stacy Grove
Not-for-profit executive or not-for-profit fiscal agent representative job title and pronouns
Rev. Stacy Grove, Interfaith Chaplain, Director of HeartSpace Spiritual Resources
Phone
+19199062399
Does the not-for-profit employ 3 or more people?
No
FESTIVAL / SPECIAL EVENT HISTORY
Tell us more about the history of your upcoming festival or special event.
Is this a proposal for a new event?
Yes
Describe your experience in managing festivals and/or special events
Baba McDaniel Roberts has reached more than 50,000 audience members in his career of nearly 30 years (https://youtu.be/syZyIBn_0rY?si=MhUilOaXFXgJj55Y), in facilitated performances, classes, festivals, statewide, national, and global arts + educational tours and more with awarded Dance and Performing Arts companies and specialization with exceptional children in his teaching career. Events professionals on the Sharing Festival staff include Assata Nataki Goff (5+ years' festival organizing experience https://www.instagram.com/assatasmagic/) and Dr. Marie Garlock (22 years' festival organizing experience itisinyou.org), and experienced Durham-based teaching + performing artists + community organizers Fredrick (Ibrahim) Strauther and Donnay Edmund, alongside Impact + Insights specialists Alphabet Krew (30 years' experience in community organizing + arts leadership)
Describe your projected audience size
Workshops - 25-50 (x4) including students, parents, educators, guardians, artists = 100-200; Festival projected audience - 150-500 participants
Are you currently under contract with the City of Durham or have you been under contract with the City of Durham in the past 5 years?
Yes
How did you learn of this opportunity?
Other
FESTIVAL / SPECIAL EVENT DESCRIPTION
itisinyou.org/sharing-festival-2027-application
Select the Funding Level you are applying for
Level I, $5,000
FESTIVAL / SPECIAL EVENT BUDGET
Attached + Below
Percentage of City-requested funds of the total festival/event budget. Please round to the nearest whole percentage.
45%
—> Submittable - Budget Table, Sharing Festival Funds 2027
GOALS
Tell us more about how your upcoming festival or special event addresses the goals of this funding program.
Goal 1 (Maximum 10 points), Goal 2 (Maximum 25 points), Goal 3 (Maximum 25 points), Goal 4 (Maximum 25 points), Goal 5 (Maximum 15 points). itisinyou.org/sharing-festival-2027-application
ATTACHMENTS
Please submit the following required and optional attachments. A PDF is the preferred file formatting for the following attachments.
1) Letter of Determination from IRS stating not-for-profit status.
—> IRS Letter - Not-For-Profit Status
2) Current "Charitable Solicitation License" from NC Department of Secretary of State
—> Articles of Incorporation, NC Secretary of State (under $50k income by 501c3)
3) Demographic Report
—> Demographic Report - Sharing Festival
4) Equitable Business Opportunity Program Questionnaire (EBOP).
—> EBOP Questionnaire
5) Non-Collusion Affidavit. Notarized
—> Notarized Non-Collusion Affadavit
6) Letters of Support from partners (required for Level II and Level III)
—> Letters of Support from Partners (tier 1)
7) Support Materials. Any additional media, letters of support, or other items to help share the story of your event. (optional; maximum of 5 files, no more than 10 pages per file).
—> Team Budget Table - Sharing Festival 2027 (description of funds usage)
—> Photos — Alayanfe, Dr. Baba Chuck Davis + Youth in Durham 1984 at Lyon Park Center
—> Photos — A Century of Black History Commemorations (original play + local history story installations by children, led by Baba McDaniel Roberts)
—> Photos — Kings and Queens Group (Durham Winter Parade, including COPE programmatic support for EC children)
Trade Secrets and Confidentiality Options
— n/a —
The candidate is not submitting any trade secrets to the City in connection with this proposal or the contract; if the contract is awarded to the candidate, the candidate will not submit any trade secrets to the City in connection with this proposal or the contract. The candidate acknowledges that the City will rely on the preceding sentence.
RFP Addendums Acknowledgment
McDaniel Roberts
Authority to Submit & Acknowledgement of Not-for-Profit Representative or Not-for-Profit Fiscal Agent Representative
By submission of the organization's proposal to the City of Durham's Festival and Special Event RFP, the Not-for-Profit Representative or Not-for-Profit Fiscal Agent Representative(s) acknowledges that the submitted proposal packet meets the City's requirements as outlined in the RFP Document.
The undersigned, whose title and position with the candidate are stated next to or beneath their signature, has the authority to submit this proposal on behalf of the candidate in response to the City of Durham’s Request for Proposals.
Unless otherwise clearly stated in this response to the RFP, the candidate's proposal accepts the terms and conditions stated in the RFP, including the description of services to be performed and the provisions of the contract to be signed.
Not-for-Profit Representative or Not-for-Profit Fiscal Agent Representative
Stacy Grove
I, as a representative of the not-for-profit respondent, acknowledge the submitted proposal meets the City's requirements as outlined in the RFP Document.
true