My name is John Burl Smith. I am Activities Coordinator for the Atlanta Vibe and a reporter for The DISH. The Atlanta Vibe is a consortium of local entrepreneurs and artists who pooled their resources to create opportunities for blacks in South DeKalb and Fulton Counties, Georgia. The changing face of business requires an evolving attitude regarding what works in a volatile market environment. Therefore, the new currencies in the global marketplace of the 21^st century are image and information.

It is this reality I wish to explore with you on behalf of the Atlanta Vibe. First and foremost, this presentation introduces a new and affective strategy to marketing for businesses interested in advertising in the highly competitive urban contemporary market. It presents spoken word artists and venues as vehicles designed to provide high visibility to businesses that wish to be players in a league of mega-superstars. As individual competitors, cost can be prohibitive, but through collective arrangements, previous competitive losses are converted into profitable outcomes.

Overview: Spoken Word!

Returning to Atlanta in 1997 from Georgia Southern University, Yohannes Sharriff Smith began performing in the only venue available to black spoken word artists - Open Mics. Back then, cutting edge poets and writers fused hip hop, rap, free style and MC technique with poetry to create a new performance motif. Getting this new gender off the ground, poets and writers had to pay to enter a venue and then signed a list hoping for a chance to perform. "Paying to play", lists grew longer and opportunities fewer. With so few venues, competition for opportunities to perform was fierce.

In 1998, individual artists began collaborating to elevate and increase spoken word performance opportunities. They broadened their audience, and expanded entertainment choices. Today, spoken word artists have grown their audience beyond "paying to play" to getting paid. Venues have proliferated from only open mics to full stage productions such as featured performances, multiple vignettes, plays and concerts. The strength of Atlanta's Vibe has evolved through developing individual performers networks and collaboration between artists who share a sense of responsibility for preserving what spoken word artists have built.

Back in 1997, spoken word audiences were comprised basically of a few dozen cult or artsy student types. Today's audiences are quite diverse. They range from young professional entry level corporate types to the older culturally conscious individuals trying to remain connected to the future. A testament to the Vibe's phenomenal growth, now artists' host venues nightly, with several each night on weekends. No longer dependent on students, as it economic engine, spoken word audiences represent stable buying power in a growing segment of the Atlanta consuming public. This segment offers marketers unique advantages, most important of which is an ability to focus their message directly on the target segment. Spoken word performers have built a strong link between artists and audiences that provide marketers direct access to a growing active listening urban contemporary marketing niche.

The delivery system in any advertising approach is the key to success. Even a badly presented message delivered well can have positive result. The Atlanta Vibe Page is a comprehensive program composed of modules designed as independent units, each fitting into a total structure. This allows a marketer or business to select systems according to their particular needs and budget. More importantly, this approach provides flexibility to upgrade components, as the value of this strategy becomes clear.

The DISH (Dot's Information Service Hotline) is an international e-magazine first published in 1998. It has a weekly distribution to over 15,000 networks and growing. Dedicated to the dialogue on race, The DISH is a major voice for black artists who wish to maintain a clear information flows between the black community, their sisters and brothers around the world and themselves. It serves as a community educational forum that provides discussion material to generate debate on issues affecting people across a variety of communities. One specific goal is to give children and young people a voice in government, secular and non-secular decision-making. The DISH provides space for featured articles, which for international readers provide more than sound-bytes.

Artists as pitchers give marketers and businesses a variety of opportunities to sponsor venues and support projects as entertainment events. Presently, Atlanta Vibe artists produce venues for schools, institutions, churches, outdoor affairs, the nightclub scene, as well as, full stage productions such as plays and concerts. Businesses that support artists and their productions make them spokespersons for products on the talk circuit, at special events and other types of appearances. The major advantage of the Atlanta Vibe's concept of collective networks, which pool resources to achieve group success, is its broad base of support. In other words, sponsors become a part of the community.

Atlanta entrepreneurs and artists have developed a news page for marketing to urban contemporary consumers. The Atlanta Vibe Page is published weekly online and in print media. The Vibe page will cover 19 major markets in the U S and will be expanded internationally. Aimed at a highly saturated segment, the Vibe page offers marketers and consumers information that speak to their desires, creates a new consciousness and elevates their image. Product endorsements offer still another avenue for marketers and businesses to maximize their advertising dollars. Through cooperation and collaboration spoken word artists are producing books, CDs, videos, plays, special features and community events.

Some background information about the leadership of the Atlanta Vibe will establish the viability of this system.

Born: 1-13-43.

Education: Graduate: George Washington Carver High School 5-25-62.

University of Memphis: BA Psychology 8-26-81.

Honors: National Science Foundation Fellow 1981.

1981 Milton C. Addington Award (Presented to the top psychology student)

Golden Key National Honor Society.

Major Employment: US Air Force 5-27-62 through 5-28-66.

Program coordinator, Community Key Program Shelby County Penal Farm 7-7-72.

Campaign Coordinator, State Representative Harold E. Ford, Sr.1972.

Campaign Coordinator, State Representative Derrick "Teddy" Withers 1974.

Program Director Big Brothers Jr. Achievers 1-13-73 through 6-10-83.

Supervisor of Distribution Operation US Postal Service 9-1-83.

Community Service: Founder and Chairman of The Invaders/ Memphis 7-4-67.

Chairman The Black Organizing Project / Memphis 2-9-67.

Grassroots Organizer and Delegate Coordinator Shirley Chisholm Presidential Champaign 1972.

Publisher What's Trump? LeMoyne-Owen College 1972.

Founder of Men of Progress LeMoyne-Owen College 1973.

Author of action lawsuit against the 8th Congressional district lines TN, which paved the way for Harold E. Ford, Sr.'s election to Congress in 1976.

Chairman First Tennessee Draft For Kennedy 1978.

Coach Basketball and Baseball Gresham Park Decatur, Georgia 1986-90.

Publisher Lee/Walker Reunion Newsletter 4-16-94.

Georgia Delegate to the National Summit on Africa.

Reporter for The DISH 1998.

Service Recognition: Service Appreciation Awards/Coach's Award DeKalb County Parks and Recreation Department 1986-1988.

Author of About Jem, I have collaborated on many levels in many projects over the last five years developing concepts for the Atlanta Vibe Repertory Company. A production that has taken many forms, The Portal is my first independent theatrical project. My life's work revolves around asking question about the human condition and applying answers as solutions to real life situations. The artistic expressions that result takes many forms but the goal remains the same: educate people!

Born: December 21, 1950

Education: Carver High School - Memphis, TN - May 1969

A.S. Political Science - Shelby State Community College - Memphis, TN 1977

B.A. Economics - Rhodes College - Memphis, TN 1980

M.A. Economics - Memphis State University - Memphis, TN 1983

Academic Achievements, Honors and Written Publications:

Omicron Delta Epsilon National Honor Society

Phi Kappa Phi National Honor Society

Beta Gamma Sigma National Business Administration Honor Society

M.A. Magna Cum Laude Memphis State University

B.A. Cum Laude Southwestern At Memphis

A.S. Magna Cum Laude Shelby State Community College

Who's Who Among Students in American Junior Colleges 1976\77

1983 Economic Association Presentations:

"Section 7 and the Failing Company Doctrine"

"Diagrammatics of the New Welfare Economics"

"The Strategic Significance of the Southern African Region: The Thrust for Dominance"

"Modern Welfare Economics: A Critical Perspective"

1982 Economic Association Presentations:

"Automation and Technological Unemployment"

"Recession and Unemployment: A Retrospective Analysis of the Economic Welfare Loss" (Published: Mid-South Journal of Economics-December '82)

Work Experience: Worked at just about every job imaginable from picking and chopping cotton in the American south to government bureaucrat.

Yohannes Sharriff Smith

Voted "Critics Choice" BEST SPOKEN WORD ARTIST of 1999 by Creative Loafing, Yohannes Sharriff Smith has continued to elevate the art of spoken word. On the cutting edge of the Atlanta spoken word, Yohannes has performed with the likes of Les Nubian, Dionne Ferris, Saul Williams, and David Nelson (creator of the Last Poets). Yohannes began with competitive performing on the 1997 National Slam Poetry Championship circuit with a second place finish that year. He won Jomandi Production's City-Wide Poetry Slam, and Martell's Speak Easy Poetry Slam. He collaborated with John Goode on a compilation of vibe poets called Vibe Sessions. A prolific writer, Yohannes is author of four books Brand X, Poetry, T.H.I.N.C. (Teaching Humanity In New Consciousness): The Chrysalis of Evolution and soon to be released The Red Clay Diary.

Moving beyond individual performances, Yohannes has appeared in four plays written, directed and produced by local artists You're Tripping, I Am Not A Descendant of Slaves, A Troubled World and Soul Food, or Fast Food : The Play. Collaborating with Aqil Thomas, Yohannes co-wrote, directed and produced The Block, a play that fuses hip-hop, jazz, blues and spoken word to tell the story of "where we live." He created the ESP (Experimental Spoken-word Performance), a cutting edge performance concept and hosted the venue at AHOP (African House of Poetry) in the West End.

Personally committed to developing the underground poetry scene in Atlanta as well as internationally, Yohannes was a part of a group of visionary in 1997, who saw spoken word as a viable educational and entertainment platform. They wanted to bring performing arts to different communities in new ways. Creating venues in schools, parks, community centers, Boys and Girls Clubs and low income housing complexes, these innovators exposed new audiences to the beauty and power of spoken word. Their immediate goal is to continue expanding the Atlanta poetry scene by developing new and different ways young artists can cultivate their talents and master stage production techniques from an entrepreneurial perspective. Brace for impact, because the next great generation of doers is here.

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