Dr Joan Cartwright and Mimi Johnson with Women In Jazz South Florida

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studio in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Atlanta Business Radio, brought to you by Kennesaw State University’s Executive MBA program, the accelerated degree program for working professionals looking to advance their career and enhance their leadership skills. And now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here, another episode of Atlanta Business Radio. And this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor, CSU’s executive MBA program. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on Atlanta Business Radio, we have Doctor Joan Cartwright and Mimi Johnson who are with Women in Jazz South Florida, and they’re part of the Atlanta office. Welcome.

Mimi Johnson: Hey. How are you?

Lee Kantor: I am doing well. I’m so excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us about Women in jazz, South Florida and how you got here to Atlanta.

Mimi Johnson: Well, actually, we have two locations. Mom. My partner, doctor J. Doctor Joan Cartwright is in Florida, and I’m in Atlanta. So we have two areas in the states and we plan to expand. But I am the media director. I am a cultural politician. I am the media director of 501 C3 Women in Jazz South Florida, Inc. and also 501 C4 Music Woman, Inc. I’m also an entrepreneur, a musician composer, and I’m working my way to Washington, D.C. to lobby for more public funding for women in the arts. So the one thing that I would say is everybody thinks, oh, it’s so cute when you see us on stage and we’re all, you know, glittered out and everything, but there is an intricate piece to our mission, and our mission is to question the white House. How do we increase earnings of women in the arts through public funding? So basically, you know, our goal is to bring women’s messages to the world through the arts, and we hold over 50% of the sky by paying taxes, and we receive less than 22% of the public funding. And it’s a $65 billion music industry, but women only earn 20%. So our mission is to, of course, increase the salaries of women musicians, composers, artists, producers. You know, women that are photographers, filmmakers that painters, just the arts in general. So the mission is it’s a great mission because it allows us as women to be able to continue to not only work in the arts, but still be good mothers, good wives, pay our mortgages, pay our car notes. I know a lot of women that are doing a side gig because they don’t make enough money with their art. Absolutely. They could not eat that, hence starving artists. So the mission of Doctor Joan Cartwright, and I’m just her little duckling, just following her footsteps is to increase salary salaries Is for women in the arts.

Lee Kantor: So how does your organization do that and help the women artists?

Mimi Johnson: So we globally promote and book women musicians and composers worldwide. And we also give the information through education about the Billie Holiday’s, the Nina Simone, Josephine Baker, um, and a lot of other women that really, really like are civil rights workers in the, in the, I would say just in the arts of entertainment. Okay. So we run Women in Jazz South Florida, which is our 500 and 1C3, and we’re a membership based organization. And what we do is we invite women all over the world. We have we have over 400 members now, and my mother’s been running this organization for 17 years plus. So we invite musicians, composers, vocalists, producers to come on board, become a member, um, which is a small nominal fee, uh, yearly. And then we promote them on our platforms, be it blogged women, uh, music, women, radio, music, women and Music Man magazine. Uh, the Music Woman festival that’s coming up. It’s a three day, four event festival coming up from October 17th through the 19th in Atlanta, Georgia. You can log on to w I j JSF. Org or music? Woman art. So we book we we literally my mother and I, just with our own private money, have invested over $30,000 already into our festival.

Mimi Johnson: Um, we are seeking more sponsorships, donations. We have a zephie, uh, page where you can find that at, uh, w I j. Org where we need private and public funding. So we need help with being able to pay our for expenses. I’m talking about travel. Um, for the for the, the ladies to perform. By the way, we do book men as well. So, you know, I just want everybody to know we do love men, but we understand the process that women are underpaid and An overworked or don’t get any work at all. And then they have to go and work at wherever, you know, to just for ends meet. So we’ve created we have created a situation where we can have people, where we can have women all gathered together, and we support each other in the endeavors, of course, with our men as well. So creating the festival, creating the the magazines, the blog, talk radio. Um, doctor Joan Cartwright puts out a, a newsletter with all of the members, you know, giving information. Um, and this way we create income so that we can pay to do our art because it’s what we love to do.

Lee Kantor: So can you talk about the Women Music Festival? Like what can an attendee expect for that festival? Like what’s going to happen and who’s going to be there?

Mimi Johnson: Okay. Oh, wow. Um, so at w-w-w dot music woman dot art, I’ll go there right now. And when you click on events, you will see all of the artists that are performing from all over the world. They’re coming in. Okay. Um, so we have three dates October 17th through the 19th. So the agenda starts on the 17th where we have our open mic. Well, we couldn’t book everyone, so I had to create a situation where the locals and other people that wanted to come in that we didn’t book for the main event, which will get into that. They could come and they could be still perform for our festival. So that’s the open mic at the core, which is. Main Street, East Point, and then we. And then so there’s October 17th, October 18th is our kick off party at the atrium, which everyone in Atlanta, um, that is social knows the atrium, um, on Memorial Drive. That’s our kick off party. And then Family Fun Day is October 19th from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. for Family Fun Day at the New Black Wall Street and Stonecrest. And then the main event where you will see, um, all of the artists at the events page. And I’ll, I’ll, um, give you a list. Uh, the main event will be at the Hjc Bowden Center, which is on Church Street in East Point, Atlanta, right across the street from the East Point Rail.

Mimi Johnson: So if you don’t have a car, you just jump on the train. It’s right there. And so we have beautiful artists that are representing, um, WCL, LCS, Reagan, Whiteside, Carroll, Albert, um, abyss, the mom and pop show, Crystal dooms, Papa Duke, Eric Giles, Miss Rita. Graham, Clem. Kim Clark, Lenore. Raphael, just Cynthia, Kim J. Uh, Smithsonian. Um. Rada I want to say Botofasina. Botofasina. And also, um, Jarvis Evans. We have poets. She Farrow and she bars. And this is our first annual music woman festival. And my mother and I have worked so hard and and my daughter, because we’re a three generations of women in business and women in the arts, and it’s just an exciting like, I’m getting goosebumps just thinking about it. It’s an exciting venture, and we just need for people to start buying tickets and donate and come on out and show out with us, you know, show up and show out and come out with us and have a wonderful experience with us. The show lineup is incredible. The, um, I will tell you that the family fun day, uh, which is, which is really going to be mostly for the children because the other events are not for the children.

Mimi Johnson: So I wanted to create a situation where we could have a family fun day, so that being at the new Black Wall Street, that means bring your children, bring your grandchildren, bring your little cousins, bring you little brothers and sisters. So we’ll have live entertainment, vending food, um, like little ice cream, cotton candy, popcorn setups. We’re going to have bouncy houses. We’ll have raffles, of course. Face painters, clowns. I want to do a double Dutch and jump rope competition, a hula hoop competition, ping pong competitions, you know, um, dance competitions. And then we will also have artists that will be performing there as well. So, um, the family Fun day, uh, was created because I wanted to include the children. I wanted to include the families because the rest of the events are not set up for a family situation. It’s more grown, folks. So I hope that, you know, everybody will go online. All you have to do is go to music, woman art and simply click on the Eventbrite. Or you can contact me Mimi Johnson at Media at jzf. Org if you would like like group tickets, we can plan some group situations for you as well. That would be a little bit cheaper than going on Eventbrite and say getting ten tickets is ten of you.

Mimi Johnson: Give me a call, give me an email, I’ll set you up, um, so that you can get your discounted tickets. Um. I’m excited. I have to give a shout out to ABC Atlanta Black Chambers tomorrow we are having our press conference at the Rice Center, the Russell Innovative, um, center for the Entrepreneurs on Fair Street in Atlanta, Georgia. That’s going to be the 17th tomorrow, September. Um, at 4 p.m., we have our press conference. I am going to be the keynote speaker. This is the first time I’ve been a keynote speaker for this kind of situation. I’m so excited. My mom edited my script for me so that I can make sure that I’m saying the right words to impact society, and I’m looking forward to it. Um, so come on out to our press conference tomorrow and the information. You can follow us also at Music Woman, Art at IG or we Jssf we always have information on our social media platforms. Um, IG is the one that I use the most because I get to really like, elevate and, uh, just correspond with people. It seems like it’s a, a better way, um, to just communicate with people that want information immediately. So yeah, it’s exciting. So music woman festival. Music. Woman. Yes, ma’am.

Dr. Joan Cartwright: We have a group coming from South Africa. The Jc5 Music Ensemble, which is five South African women musicians that got a grant from the South African Arts Council. Yes. They will be joining us. Uh, they’ll be performing on the 19th. They’re being featured at the H.C. Bowden Senior Center, so I wanted to mention them.

Mimi Johnson: Yes, indeed. Yes, indeed. And that was the exciting thing about that is, is that we literally have people coming in from all over the world for our festival. That’s why we would love for you to come out, you know, purchase your tickets, um, make your donations become a sponsor if you go to Music and art. When you go, not if you go, go and simply click on partner sponsors. It gives you the information and the tiers of our deliverables and also the partner sponsor packages. Get in touch. You know, the one thing that everybody knows that we need in business is money. Money makes more money. So we need to be funded. We are enjoying the journey and we love and thank everyone for just enjoying the journey with us.

Lee Kantor: Well, Mimi and Doctor Joan, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Dr. Joan Cartwright: Thank you, thank you.

Lee Kantor: All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on Atlanta Business Radio.