Membership | Employment | Mailing List
Your Reasons for Becoming a Member
A Haitian proverb
says, "Men anpil, chay pa lou." That means, "With many
hands, the burden is light." When you become a member of Makandal,
your hand joins ours, along with the hands of other members and supporters
in accomplishing our mission.
How is Makandal accomplishing its mission? Productions for 2002 include
our fourth annual Bwa Kayiman ( a commemoration of Haiti's 1791 revolutionary
uprisings) in Prospect Park and our third annual Rising Sun series (a
wintertime Vodou drama of death and rebirth) at the South Oxford Space
in Fort Greene. We plan to join the Haitian community in its Flag Day
celebration in May 2003 (marking the bicentennial of the flag's creation).
Our Krik! Krak! program of drum and dance classes for children in Brooklyn
is now in its fourth full year, and Joseph Roger Jean of the children
and youth group Tonèl Lakay is studying with Master Drummer Augustin
for his third consecutive year.
So far, these programs have received support from the National Endowment
for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, the Brooklyn Arts
Council, the City Parks Foundation/Mellon Foundation, and the Borough
President of Brooklyn. Makandal has just received a technical support
grant from the New York Foundation for the Arts, which we shall use to
hone marketing skills. Our grants and income from contracted services
pay salaries and fringe benefits, plus the costs of space, advertising,
and some materials. Your membership fee helps with office supplies, telephone,
postage, travel and other such operating expenses.
Finally, membership in Makandal entitles you to benefits. Members in all
categories (determined by level of contribution) receive premiums, and
when we produce events that require an admission fee, members receive
a discount. Please print
out our membership from on Adobe Acrobat (link) to check the
benefits and become a member.
La Troupe Makandal, a small but growing organization, needs committed individuals who would like to be part of our team. As a volunteer, you can become an agent of positive cultural change while learning something new, sharpening old skills, making new friends, and having fun. We welcome volunteers of all backgrounds and generations, including student interns. While we are interested in your ideas for volunteer assignments, please check our wish list below.
Office Assistant/s
We seek one or more volunteers for ongoing office tasks, including but
not limited to bookkeeping (accounts payable and receivable, semimonthly
payroll, quarterly filing of payroll taxes, bank reconciliations, inventory
management), database management, and non-profit mailings. Volunteers
would work with the Executive Director in Makandal's office in Central
Brooklyn on a weekly or semimonthly basis, three to four hours per work
slot. Our PC uses the following software for office tasks: Quickbooks,
Excel, Access, Word, and Wordperfect. Experience is a plus, but we will
negotiate training.
Events Manager
Makandal produces five annual performances, and other presenters contract
us throughout the year to perform. We seek a volunteer who would keep
artists informed about rehearsal and performance details, distribute publicity
(hard copy and email), manage ticketing, develop checklists for props
and costumes, and oversee volunteer teams for events. Work occurs on a
per event basis. A typical event runs four hours from setup to breakdown,
and for our annual series pre-event work begins a month before. We would
encourage the Events Manager to attend some rehearsals.
Education Assistant/s
The Troupe holds drum-and-dance workshops for children and youth at three
community centers in Brooklyn. We are looking for one or two individuals
with a keen interest in education to help recruit new students and to
document the workshops. Recruitment entails establishing contact with
other Brooklyn-based community organizations that serve children and youth,
distributing publicity, and developing innovative outreach methods. Documentation
includes photography, videotaping, and interviews with parents and students.
Most work would occur at the beginnings and ends of semesters (September
- December, February - May) in flexible time slots of two to three hours.
We hold our workshops in Flatbush and Park Slope.
Makandal volunteers enjoy many of the same benefits as Members, not to
mention the satisfaction of having contributed to a positive cultural
movement. If you are interested in our volunteer program, please contact
Dr. Lois Wilcken at 718-953-6638, or at makandal@earthlink.net.
Remember that we are prepared to work with college internship programs.
Mailing List
Makandal's semiannual newsletter, Drum & Dance, goes out in
hard copy form to all of our mailing list. The newsletter reports on programs
and lists upcoming events. Because we intend to expand our Internet outreach,
we are now announcing all of our activities and programs via email and
website postings. Click here
to put yourself on our list. Remember, if you want the hardcopy newsletter,
we need your snail mail, too!