Talib Kweli recently fielded questions – via Twitter – concerning the allocating of funds from a charity he helped to start.
After a follower asked Kweli “how much was raised and where it went?” the rapper explained that $104,000 had been raised and $35,000 had been donated to the advocacy group Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment (MORE).
Two months after unarmed teenager Michael Brown was shot and killed by former Ferguson, Missouri police officer Darren Wilson, Kweli teamed up with Donna Dragotta and Autumn Marie to start the Ferguson Legal Defense Fund.
Kweli, Dragotta and Marie used the crowdsourcing site Indiegogo to streamline their efforts. According to the site, the campaign was initiated to assist with legal funds and money to live for protesters in Ferguson. By partnering with Tef Poe and Tory Russell from Ferguson October, the proceeds were said to go exactly where they were needed.
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Within three months, the Defense Fund had exceeded its $25,000 goal, accumulating a total of $112,052. The campaign was closed on January 2.
Its first withdrawal aided a vocal 19-year-old protestor named Josh Williams.
Police arrested Williams after a surveillance video allegedly captured him trying to set fire to a pile of wood outside of a Berkeley,Missouri QuikTrip on Christmas Eve.
The hashtag #FreeJosh and a promotional website brought awareness to his case. Nearly 40 days later, Williams has been freed from prison, according to MORE.
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Kweli’s Legal Defense Fund was reportedly responsible for donating tens of thousands of dollars towards Williams’ bail.
A representative from the organization, Hands Up United, tweeted “15k raised by MORE 15k from Talib Kweli Legal Defense Fund, coordinated with Hands Up United. Thank them but thank Talib Kweli 4 his work.”
Kweli addressed his detractors by tweeting, “To ppl in Ferguson asking about the money I raised, no need for the drama and speculation. I’m right here. Daily. Ask me anything.”
Check out the full exchange via Twitter below:
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(February 5)
Update: In an exclusive statement to HipHopDX, Talib Kweli explains that he created a 13-member organization called Action Support Committee to help monitor distributions of the funds raised. He also states that while the organization gave money to MORE, it is not directly responsible for MORE’s decision to bail Josh Williams out of jail.
“We raised $112,052 altogether,” Kweli says. “Indiegogo takes $8,000 of the $112,000, which becomes $104,000.” He continues:
“Because we raised so much money, I started a committee called the Action Support Committee. There are 13 members of the committee. The members are Patrisse Cullors from Black Lives Matter; Aisha Alexander from Dream Defenders; Phillip Agnew from Dream Defenders; Liz Manne, who is a strategist/activist; Autumn Marie who is a publicist/activist; Rosa Clemente who is a professor/activist; Miles Solay from the band Outernational; Hiram Rivera with the Philadelphia Student Union; Orlando Jones who is an actor; Revered Osagyefo Sekou with Fellowship Of Reconciliation; Diamond Latchison with Freedom Fighters; and Kayla Reid with the Organization for Black Struggle, St. Louis; and myself.
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“I put together a coalition of these 13 entertainers, activists, and people in Ferguson so that we can be accountable for the money. We took a couple of weeks to set up a bank account [as we waited to] get the money from Indiegogo. When the money came to us, we set up a bank account last week. Last Friday, we sent $35,000 to MORE.
“MORE has been bailing out a lot of people. MORE helped Josh Williams with his bail. Our money went to MORE. We don’t decide who MORE decides to bail out. Josh got bailed out a few days after our money went to MORE. Whether or not the money that we gave to MORE helped to get Josh [out of jail], they haven’t made a statement saying that. I haven’t made a statement saying that because I don’t know. It’s quite possible that the money we gave to MORE had nothing to do with Josh Williams. Josh’s bail was 10 percent of $30,000. They got it reduced to $3,000. It’s very possible that the money that MORE gave to Josh had nothing to do with the money that we put in. It’s just that the money we gave MORE and the money MORE gave to Josh Williams happened around the same time.
“Someone from Hands Up United, tweeted me and said ‘Thank you for getting Josh out.’ I tweeted back, ‘Don’t thank me. Thank yourselves. Y’all are the ones doing the work.’
“Because I tweeted back, it seemed like I was co-signing saying I was the one that got Josh out. Then someone else tweeted me saying, ‘The money you gave had nothing to do with Josh.’ Then I responded with, ‘Listen, I don’t know whether my money had to do with Josh or not. We gave money to MORE, not to Josh.’ That’s where the confusion comes in: Because I retweeted a tweet.
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“At the end of the day, it’s all good news. It’s a small detail, but that little detail has a lot of drama behind it.
“We gave $35,000. That still leaves a lot of money. So you all know what happened with the rest of the money, we gave $3,800 to Fellowship Of Reconciliation. We’re in the process of funding several youth organizations on the ground. We’re going to vote on the rest of the funds very shortly.”
For additional questions on how the Action Support Committee intends to distribute the funds raised, reach out Talib Kweli directly on Twitter @TalibKweli.
