1 Project summary
In two or three sentences, describe your proposed program.
Rainbow Wednesdays is a free summer series at Rainbow Beach Park where neighborhood DJs, from middle-schoolers who taught themselves last winter to veteran selectors, perform live sets that blend, flip and remix music into something new on the spot, while young instrumentalists from South Shore play over the decks. Fourteen Wednesday evenings, June 2 to September 1, 2027, give at least 50 young people a paid stage on the lakefront and give the neighborhood a weekly reason to come to the beach together. Each Wednesday is one color of the rainbow and one sound; the season goes around the spectrum twice and ends with every color at once.
2 Program description
Describe the program in detail. What will the audience experience?
DJing has become the most accessible instrument in the neighborhood. A beginner controller costs about $100 to $300, mixing software is free, and young people in South Shore are learning from videos in their bedrooms. So are their parents and grandparents, many of whom grew up on Chicago house and on the sound systems of the South Side. What none of them have is a place to play for a real crowd. Rainbow Wednesdays builds that place, and makes it a performance worth coming to watch.
The series is built around live creation. A Rainbow Wednesdays DJ is not playing a playlist. They are blending two songs into a third, cutting a classic into a new rhythm, answering what the crowd asks for and, in the Live Lab, building a track from scratch while young drummers, steel pan players, horn players, keyboardists and violinists improvise on top of it. Every night, the audience hears music that did not exist before that evening.
Why “Rainbow”
A rainbow is ordinary light split open to show every color it was carrying. The series does the same with the music already in the neighborhood. Every genre is a color: each Wednesday is assigned one of the seven colors and one sound, and fourteen Wednesdays take the season around the spectrum exactly twice. Blends make new colors: the Theme Clash and the Live Lab are where two sounds mix into a third. The crowd is the rainbow: the format is built so that a twelve-year-old and a seventy-year-old, a first-timer and a veteran, share the same decks. Each week's color sets that night's flyer and the lights on the DJ booth, and the audience is invited to wear it. The Finale ends in full spectrum, with every color at once. And it happens at Rainbow Beach.
Each Wednesday, 6:00 to 8:30 pm
| Time | Segment | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| 5:00 pm | Load-in | Crew sets the ground-level DJ position, canopy, sound and the sign-up table. Performers check in; minors check in with their guardian. |
| 6:00 pm | Open Decks | Three 10-minute slots for first-time DJs of any age, signed up at the table that night. A mentor DJ stands beside each one. |
| 6:30 pm | Youth Showcase | Four youth DJs (ages 12–24), 15 minutes each, selected through the season's open call and paid a stipend. |
| 7:30 pm | Live Lab | The week's featured DJ builds a track live from a beat and a loop. Up to three young instrumentalists, who rehearse with the DJ beforehand, improvise over it. |
| 8:00 pm | Theme Clash (center stage) | The signature segment, described below. A theme everyone knows meets a well-known song, blended live, with the MC on wordplay and the crowd calling the next pairing. |
| 8:20 pm | Generations Back-to-Back | A youth DJ and a veteran DJ trade songs one for one to close the night. |
| 8:30 pm | Close & clean | Music ends before dusk. Load-out and a litter sweep of the performance area. Off site by 9:00 pm. |
On the first Wednesday of each month (June 2, July 7, August 4, September 1) programming starts at 7:00 pm with the Youth Showcase, and Open Decks moves to the following week.
The hook: Theme Clash
Every Wednesday has one segment where wordplay and genre-mixing take center stage. A DJ takes a theme the whole crowd recognizes in two notes, such as a movie theme, a TV sitcom theme, video-game music or a TV commercial jingle, and blends it live with a killer, well-known song, so that both turn into something new. Other sources include cartoon themes, game-day stadium anthems, ringtones and viral video sounds, and neighborhood sounds like the ice-cream truck and the school bell. The MC rides the blend with wordplay, and the audience shouts out the next pairing.
The Theme Clash is cut to fit each week's sound (sitcom themes over Chicago house, game music over footwork, movie scores over a reggae riddim). It builds to semifinals on August 25 and a final at the September 1 Finale. Every pairing is cleared for a family audience, and themes are quoted briefly the way a DJ quotes a hook, not played in full.
What it looks like: examples online
The format draws on a live, growing practice. These outside examples are shown for illustration only. None of these artists is booked for or affiliated with the series.
- Theme Clash (mashups and wordplay). “Charlie Brown in the club,” in which DJ SMACKS drops the Peanuts theme into a club set, is the best-known single example. Siangyoo, followed by hundreds of thousands of people, has built a following on blends, mashups and edits.
- Live Lab (live instruments with the DJ). Mapy plays dancehall mashups on violin over the riddims (Sean Paul, Beenie Man, Buju Banton). DSharp plays violin, DJs and sings, often in the same “DJ + Violin” set.
- Young DJs, from toddlers up. On Britain’s Got Talent: The Champions, DJ Arch Jnr, billed as “the world’s youngest DJ,” gets a Wembley Arena crowd dancing. DJ Faculty Lounge shows toddlers DJing back-to-back and flipping nursery songs like “The Wheels on the Bus” into dance tracks. DJ RINOKA, an elementary-school DJ, plays a public set at a community market in Japan. DJ Michelle, a two-time DMC Middle East scratch champion, battles her father, DJ Shock, on camera. That is the Generations Back-to-Back idea.
The season
Each week takes one color and one sound and asks the DJs to reinvent it. The themes give audiences a reason to return, and give performers a creative brief.
| Date | Color | Theme |
|---|---|---|
| June 2 | Red | Opening Night: Rainbow Rising. The first cohort of youth DJs is introduced. |
| June 9 | Orange | Chicago House. The sound this city gave the world, re-edited by a new generation. |
| June 16 | Yellow | Freedom Sounds, Juneteenth week. Spirituals, soul, funk and protest songs sampled and blended. |
| June 23 | Green | Riddim & Steel, Caribbean-American Heritage Month. Steel pan and hand drums in the Live Lab. |
| June 30 | Blue | Footwork & Juke. The South Side's own dance music, with a dance circle in front of the booth. |
| July 7 | Indigo | Old School / New School. Every set is shared by a youth DJ and a veteran. |
| July 14 | Violet | Afrobeats & Amapiano. Talking drum and percussion in the Live Lab. |
| July 21 | Red | Roots & Culture. Roots reggae and sound-system style, the week of the SelassieFest festival. |
| July 28 | Orange | Soul & R&B Sing-Along. Great R&B originals, plus sing-over covers that carry them into reggae and other genres, led by DJs who get the whole crowd singing out loud. |
| Aug. 4 | Yellow | Gospel at Sunset. Church musicians and choir members join the Live Lab. |
| Aug. 11 | Green | Back-to-School Youth Takeover. Every slot, including the MC, goes to performers under 18. |
| Aug. 18 | Blue | Band Meets Booth. An extended Live Lab with a full youth ensemble. |
| Aug. 25 | Indigo | Theme Clash Semifinals, judged by crowd noise. |
| Sept. 1 | Violet + full spectrum | Season Finale: The Rainbow Crown. The Theme Clash final, every youth DJ of the season, and a closing Live Lab with all of the season's young musicians. |
Why this belongs in a park
- Your grandmother’s music, like she’s never heard it. A thirteen-year-old cues up the record her grandmother danced to in 1979, lays it over a footwork beat, and her grandmother hears her own song brand new. The music isn’t replaced; it’s carried forward. That’s a blend, and blends make new colors.
- Music belongs to whoever loves it. A kid in Tokyo spins Chicago house. A kid from Bronzeville plays Afrobeats, and another learns roots reggae from a sound system. On Rainbow Wednesdays any young person can take on any sound, from any part of the world, and make it their own. The crowd is the rainbow.
- It is participatory. Open Decks and the Theme Clash are driven by whoever walks up, and the Sing-Along night turns the whole beach into the choir. The line between audience and performer is meant to blur.
- It is a ladder, not a single show. Free spring workshops lead to Open Decks, to a paid Showcase set, to the Finale. A young person can start the summer as a spectator and end it on stage.
- It is intergenerational. The format pairs young DJs with veterans every week, and the music itself, from house to footwork to roots reggae, is the neighborhood's own history.
- It is regular. A fixed weekly night builds a habit of using the beach on a weekday evening. That is something a one-day event cannot do.
3 Artistic quality and artists
Who are the artists, and how will you ensure quality?
Every night is anchored by a featured DJ, an experienced Chicago DJ paid a professional fee to lead the Live Lab and mentor the young performers. Featured DJs are chosen for live skill (blending, live editing, looping, playing with musicians), not for following, and the roster draws on the SelassieFest network of Chicago sound-system, reggae, house and hip-hop DJs. A paid MC hosts every night and leads the wordplay in the Theme Clash.
Youth DJs (ages 12–24) and young instrumentalists are chosen through an open call in April 2027. They apply by sending a short mix or a phone video, with priority for residents of South Shore and neighboring community areas. A panel of a featured DJ, a neighborhood community member and a music educator selects each month's Showcase lineup. Every selected young artist attends at least one workshop before their first set and rehearses with the featured DJ before a Live Lab night.
Quality is built in through the structure: short sets (10 to 15 minutes) keep energy high, a mentor stands beside first-time performers, and every set is family-appropriate under a clean-lyrics policy (radio edits only).
Spring workshops (April–May 2027)
The workshops run in the Rainbow DJ Lab (selassiefest.com/dj-lab), the program's live classroom app: one shared class clock for kid, coach and parent screens, Passport stamps, and an emailed recap to families after each class.
Six free two-hour workshops, taught by featured DJs: beatmatching and blending; building a set; live looping and editing; playing with live instruments; the Theme Clash (wordplay and genre-mixing); and a dress rehearsal on the beach. A small lending library of three starter DJ controllers and headphones lets young people without equipment practice and perform.
4 Community engagement
Who is your audience, and how will you engage the community around the park?
Primary audience. Families and young people in South Shore and the neighborhoods around Rainbow Beach, including the people already on the beach on a summer weeknight. Secondary audience. Young DJs and musicians from across the South Side, their families and friends, and Chicago's house, footwork, hip-hop and Caribbean music communities.
Partners
| Partner | Role | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Rainbow Beach Park (Chicago Park District, South Region) | Host park. Performance area, scheduling and park coordination. | First conversation with park staff Oct. 7, 2026 |
| Ras Tafari Inc. (Ras Tafari Inc. Consultants) | Presenter and producer. Prepares the proposal and reports; supplies sound, crew, insurance and production management. | Committed |
| Neighborhood schools, church music programs and youth music programs | Recruit young instrumentalists and youth DJs; host open-call sessions. | Outreach begins after approval |
| Local businesses on 75th, 79th and South Shore Drive | Sponsors, flyer distribution, and food nearby for audiences. | Outreach begins after approval |
Partner wish list: one kind of partner per color
Beyond the core partners, the series is designed to bring in partners that arts programs rarely reach. For example:
- Parents and grandparents leading “Show Me How You Moved,” where elders teach the dance that went with a song and the kids answer with theirs.
- Fitness instructors leading a Rainbow Warm-Up to a young DJ's set.
- Seven local businesses each sponsoring one color.
- Audiologists giving every young DJ hearing protection.
None of the partners below are committed yet. They are the list we will develop with the park.
| Color | Partners we will invite |
|---|---|
| Red: Family & generations | Parents & grandparents; Senior centers & senior buildings; Block clubs |
| Orange: Movement | Fitness instructors; Chicago steppers & line-dance groups; Dance crews, step teams & double-dutch |
| Yellow: Music & schools | Middle and high schools; Music teachers & band directors; Marching bands & drumlines; Church music ministers & choirs |
| Green: Sound & music careers | Library teen media labs; Recording studios; Community & college radio; DJ and music shops; Audio and media programs |
| Blue: Neighborhood economy | Sponsor a color; Barbershops & salons; Food trucks & the ice-cream truck; Banks & credit unions |
| Indigo: Care & community | Youth jobs programs; Peacekeeping & youth-outreach groups; Health clinics & audiologists; Disability and ASL partners |
| Violet: Earth, art & neighbors | Great Lakes beach-cleanup groups; Visual artists & muralists; Face painters, tie-dye & local designers; Photographers & film students; Neighboring park councils |
Engagement plan
| Nov. 2026 – Feb. 2027 | Review the series with park leadership and invite neighbors to name the season's themes. |
| March 2027 | Park meeting with Rainbow Beach Park staff; performance area, dates and logistics confirmed. |
| April 2027 | Open call for youth DJs and instrumentalists, distributed through the park, schools, churches, libraries, park bulletin boards and social media, not only our own list. |
| April–May 2027 | Six free spring workshops; selection panel chooses the June lineups. |
| June–Sept. 2027 | Weekly series. Open Decks sign-ups every night; monthly calls for the next month's Showcase. |
| Sept. 2027 | Finale, then a public report back to the park and neighbors with attendance, performers and what to change. |
Marketing
A rainbow season poster and a weekly flyer printed in that night's color, with its theme and performers; banners at the beach; flyers at schools, libraries, churches and businesses near the park; and weekly posts by the performers themselves. Young performers bring their own crowds, and that is the series' strongest marketing.
5 Production and technical needs
Describe your space, power, sound and staffing needs.
| Space | A grass or paved area of about 60 ft × 60 ft for the DJ position, a small live-music area and the audience. Exact location to be chosen with park staff, away from the swimming area and the fieldhouse entrance. |
| Staging | Ground level. One 10 ft × 10 ft canopy over the DJ position. No riser, no tent over 400 sq ft. |
| Power | Partner supplies a quiet inverter generator. No park electrical service or fieldhouse access is assumed. |
| Sound | Partner supplies sound reinforcement from its own inventory. A sound meter at the edge of the audience keeps levels within standard park limits. No amplified-sound exception is sought. |
| Hours | Load-in 5:00 pm, program 6:00–8:30 pm (7:00–8:30 pm on the first Wednesday of each month), off site by 9:00 pm. No overnight equipment. |
| Staffing | Producer, sound technician, two paid youth crew apprentices (teens learning live sound), the MC and at least two volunteers each night. |
| Restrooms | Existing park facilities, during their normal hours. |
| Weather | Light rain: the canopy covers the DJ and equipment. Lightning or heavy rain: the night is cancelled and announced by 3:00 pm, and the lineup moves to a later week. |
| Accessibility | An accessible viewing area on a firm surface, seating for elders and people with disabilities, and ASL interpretation at the Finale. |
Safety and young people
- Signed parent or guardian consent for every performer under 18, with an adult they choose on site.
- Background checks for every adult who works with the youth performers.
- Clean-lyrics policy for every set and the MC.
- No alcohol, no tickets and no sales by the series.
- $1,000,000 general liability insurance naming the Chicago Park District as additional insured.
6 Goals and evaluation
What will success look like, and how will you measure it?
| Goal for the 2027 season | How we measure it |
|---|---|
| At least 50 young people (under 25) perform, including at least 25 first-time performers | Performer sign-in sheets and the open-call roster |
| At least $9,000 paid directly to young people | Stipend records |
| Average attendance of 150 or more by the second half of the season | Head counts at 7:00 pm and 8:00 pm each night |
| Most of the audience comes from the surrounding neighborhoods | A short optional zip-code survey at the sign-up table |
| Performers grow over the season | Mentor check-ins; how many Open Decks performers return for a Showcase set |
| The park and neighbors want it back | A September report and debrief with park staff |
7 Budget
Provide a project budget showing all sources of support.
Personnel
| Line | Cash | In-kind |
|---|---|---|
| Youth DJ stipends: 4 per night × $75 × 14 nights | $4,200 | — |
| Featured DJ / mentor: $250 × 14 nights | $3,500 | — |
| Young instrumentalist stipends: 3 per night × $75 × 14 nights | $3,150 | — |
| MC / host: $150 × 14 nights | $2,100 | — |
| Finale guest headliner | $500 | — |
| Spring workshop instructors: 6 sessions × $200 | $1,200 | — |
| Sound technician: $200 × 14 nights | $2,800 | — |
| Youth crew apprentices: 2 × $60 × 14 nights | $1,680 | — |
| Producer / project director (organizational contribution) | — | $3,000 |
| Personnel subtotal | $19,130 | $3,000 |
Materials and equipment
| Line | Cash | In-kind |
|---|---|---|
| Lending library: 3 starter DJ controllers ($900), 6 headphones ($240), cables and stands ($300) | $1,440 | — |
| Generator rental and fuel: $75 × 14 nights | $1,050 | — |
| Signage and banners | $400 | — |
| Sound reinforcement, own inventory: $250 × 14 nights | — | $3,500 |
| Canopy, tables, chairs, sign-up station and LED booth lights in the week's color, own inventory | — | $1,400 |
| Materials subtotal | $2,890 | $4,900 |
Other
| Line | Cash | In-kind |
|---|---|---|
| Event liability insurance, full season | $1,500 | — |
| Background checks for adults working with youth | $300 | — |
| Season documentation: photo and video | $1,000 | — |
| Print marketing | $800 | — |
| Digital promotion | $400 | — |
| ASL interpretation, Finale | $300 | — |
| Other subtotal | $4,300 | — |
| Total cash expenses | $26,320 |
| Total in-kind | $7,900 |
| Total project value | $34,220 |
Funding plan
| Source | Status | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Additional grants and sponsors | To raise | $15,000 |
| Illinois Arts Council, Creative Projects grant | To apply (rolling) | $8,000 |
| Local business sponsors | To raise | $2,000 |
| Ras Tafari Inc., cash | Committed | $1,320 |
| Ras Tafari Inc., in-kind (equipment and producer time) | Committed | $7,900 |
| Total | $34,220 |
If less than the full budget is raised, the series scales instead of stopping. Ras Tafari Inc. will run as many Wednesdays as are funded, starting with the opening night, the Juneteenth week, the youth takeover and the Finale, and will seek other support for the rest.
8 Presenter and producer
Tell us about your organization and its capacity to deliver.
Ras Tafari Inc.
Working as Ras Tafari Inc. Consultants, Ras Tafari Inc. prepared this proposal and would present and produce the series as its own program. Ras Tafari Inc. is a Chicago cultural and educational nonprofit dedicated to Caribbean and African Diaspora heritage, and the producer of SelassieFest, a Chicago roots reggae and cultural festival. It produces events from end to end: artist contracting, staging, sound, permits, insurance and marketing. It has its own sound inventory and production crew. Its year-round work includes youth programming.
| Legal name | Ras Tafari Inc. |
| Status | Illinois not-for-profit corporation; 501(c)(3) public charity |
| Chicago address | 1401 E. 71st St., Chicago, IL 60619 |
| Role | Consultant and producing partner |
| Project lead | Stephen Henry, President |
| Officers | Stephen Henry, President · Paul Kelly, Vice President and Treasurer · Albert Harris, Corporate Secretary |
| Contact | 872-255-9333 · stephen@selassiefest.com · selassiefest.com |
Supporting documents available on request
- IRS 501(c)(3) determination letter and Illinois certificate of good standing
- Certificate of liability insurance
- Site plan for the requested performance area
- Sample flyers, posters and event pages from SelassieFest
- Biographies of the featured DJs (after confirmation)
9 Part of Full Spectrum at Rainbow Beach
Rainbow Wednesdays is one of five parts of Full Spectrum at Rainbow Beach, a year-round program for the park: DJ classes, Rainbow Wednesdays, live stage shows, festivals, and fall and holiday parties. The DJ classes feed the Wednesday lineups, and the strongest Wednesday performers move on to the stage shows and festivals.