We started in 1995 with the Austin Area Heritage Council which plans Austin's MLK Celebration. When I left in 2010 - we had a $50,000 annual budget, 20,000 annual attendees to the city's MLK march and celebration and annually distributed $10,000 in scholarships to area students.

Our previous keynote speakers and performers included James Earl Jones, Maya Angelou, Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis, national NAACP President Kweisi Mfume, Tavis Smiley, and Sweet Honey in The Rock.

In 1999 - responding to the Black communities collective complaint that there was nothing for Black people to do in Austin - we launched soulciti.

soulciti is the ultimate digital media outlet to reach savvy, and success-oriented African Americans in central Texas. We have a database of over 15,000 registered users and an average of 38,000 visitors per month and 775,000 monthly hits,

We have an active social media presence with a cumulative traction of 100,000 monthly impressions generated from over 19,000 Facebook fans, 1,000 X followers and 9,500 Instagram followers.

In 2005 - the City of Austin under took the African American Quality of Life Initiative.

Out of this - we struck a unique $100K sponsorship contract with the city that allowed us to launch Urban Music Fest to coincide with Texas Relays Weekend downtown on Auditorium Shores..

Now called Urban Cultural Fest - at its peak in 2011 - UMF featured 15,000 attendees from all over Texas with 12 continuous hours of music from luminary headliners such as Charlie Wilson, Cameo, Johnny Gill, Frankie Beverly and Maze, Morris Day and the Time, Joe, SWV, Take 6, The Sugar Hill Gang, Chaka Khan and many, many others over the last 17 years.

We were approached by SXSW to serve in the role as their first ever diversity partner. We were tasked with increasing the African American experience and participation in the annual global conference.

Over the next decade - we hosted a diversity reception, an HBCU Hackathon, numerous networking activations, an Innovators Award Dinner and 15-20 panels each year deep diving on systemic improvement in diversity and cultural representation and leadership development in the innovation and technology economy.

Featured speakers have included Van Jones,, Michael Seibel, Luvvie Ajayi Jones, Erik Moore, Richard Kearny, Kimberly Bryant, Marlon Nichols, Erika Alexander, Bonin Bough, Richelieu Dennis, and Arlan Hamilton.

In 2016 - we launched the first ever Pitch Black Competition giving away $25,000 in business pitch competition.

Pitch Black was designed to create opportunities for all promising Black entrepreneurs to equip them with the tools needed to develop their ventures.

In 2018 - we expanded to partner with Shea Moisture and New Voices Foundation to give away $100,000 in the 3rd annual Pitch Black Competition.

In 2014 - we produced Austin's first jazz festival featuring national jazz artists Kirk Whalum, Jeff Lorber, Everette Harp, Jesse J., Althea Rene and Kyle Turner, along with 20 other regional and local artists.

With over 2,500 attendees - the festival was held in the beautiful hill country venue at The Backyard. Unfortunately, The Backyard was displaced in 2015.

The Austin Jazz Fest has remained on hiatus since that time - however - it will return in the future.

EFFECTIVE JAN 1, 2023, SOUL FOOD TRUCK WAS REBRANDED TO:

19TH FEST - A NATIONAL JUNETEETH CELEBRATION

Texas’ Soul Food Truck Festival was created to unite the community around the African American soul food experience. The family-friendly event seeks to nurture the mind, body, and spirit of those in attendance and encourage individuals to live healthy and sustainable lifestyles and to build a healthier overall community.

2022 represented the triumphant post-covid return of the festival that featured over 50+ black-owned businesses from all over Texas with over 2,500 attendees.

Originally envisioned in 2001 - the African American Leadership Institute (AALI) is designed to enhance civic awareness and leadership opportunities to make an innovative community impact on Central Texas.

Officially launched in January 2021, AALI's mission is to build a stronger black Austin community by equipping leaders to live up to their moral responsibility to seek to make life better for everyone in our city, state, and the world.

With an annual operating budget of $400,000, AALI has had four successful cohorts with over 100 alumni fellows.