Originally founded as a variety show demanding justice for the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and Tony McDade, Freedom Fundraiser is a collective designed by students as a space for artists and performers to raise funds for the fight against racial injustice and police brutality.

We decided to join their efforts at Berklee, calling out to student performers to host a Berklee Freedom Fundraiser Showcase! Berklee College of Music was built and is maintained by Black-artists and music that has its roots in Black resistance. It is important to demand Berklee’s love for Black music to extend to its Black students and faculty, as well as the Black community in the greater Boston area.

Join us this Sunday, June 28th at 5PM EST via this zoom link to raise funds for:

Black Trans Femmes in the Arts (collective dedicated to creating space for Blacks trans femmes in the arts by building networks to provide resources and support for artistic pursuits, encouraging creative entrepreneurship, and recognizing the importance of the arts in healing pain as a result of the marginalization and erasure of Black trans/nonbinary identity.)
Sisters Unchained (provides women and girls who have been affected by incarceration with alternative healing spaces and resources. Their current programs include giving rides for daughters to visit incarcerated parents monthly, lunches for affected young women to engage in community, and a summer program that educates attendees on the prison industrial complex while also implementing practices of self love)
Black and Pink: (abolition focused organization working towards dismantling the prison industrial complex, with a particular focus on addressing its impact on LGBTQ+ persons. Programs include conducting and publishing groundbreaking research on trans and queer experience in the prison system, helping to secure housing, youth advocacy training, criminal justice reform, and a newsletter/penpal program connecting people on both sides of incarceration.)

If you can’t make it to show, feel free to donate to our Givebutter or Venmo (@ffberklee), or directly to the orgs using the links above! For more ways to stay involved, follow the Freedom Fundraiser Collective : @freedomfundraiser on Instagram and @ffcollective_ on Twitter.

ANNOUNCEMENT (IN REFERENCE TO ORIGINAL 6/19 SHOW): Berklee Freedom Fundraiser is being postponed to a later date. Firstly, we must extend a big THANK YOU to everyone who has shown tremendous support for this event--especially to those of you who have already donated! We are choosing to postpone the show because we received feedback that this show is not uplifting the entirety of the Black Berklee Community.

Berklee Freedom Fundraiser was presented as an event to celebrate Black Berklee artists on Juneteenth, addressing the shortcoming of Berklee College and the non-Black Berklee Community in highlighting Black artists, music and culture. Considering that the mission of this show, and the Freedom Fundraiser Collective, is to uplift Black artists within schools and Black communities as a whole, this is a failure on our part that we take full responsibility for. To do so was not only unacceptable, but antithetical to the movement for Black lives and Black freedom.

We want to thank those who spoke to us about this shortcoming, but also want to acknowledge that it should not be the responsibility of the Black Berklee Community to educate us on decisions where we should have used better judgement. We look forward to hosting this show in the near future, when we have taken time to step back, regroup, and rethink our outreach. Again, thank you to everyone expressing interest and donating. Our donation links will remain open. We encourage you to donate through our avenues or to Black and Pink, Sisters Unchained, and Black Trans Femmes in the Arts Collective directly.

Additionally, Bandcamp is donating 100% of its sales to the NAACP Legal Fund today. We encourage everyone to support Black artists on this platform today--this short list is not comprehensive, but will get you started!

Samora Pinderhughes - Black Spring EP
BIG $ILKY - BIG $ILKY VOL. 1
Dua Saleh - ROSETTA
Proper. - I Spent The Winter Writing Songs About Getting Better
Tyshawn Sorey
SAMURAI SHOTGUN
SOUL GLO - Live @ WKDU
Indigo Honey! - Natalia, My Goth GF
Shamir - Cataclysm
Christelle Bofale - Miles
Vagabon - Vagabon
Big Joanie - Sistahs
The Muslims - Gentrified Chicken

Freedom Fundraiser Berklee

Team Members