About Black Rock Coalition's Shop
New York, NY
Black Rock Coalition is a nonprofit, member-supported, grassroots organization founded in 1985 to facilitate the maximum development, exposure & acceptance of Black alternative music & its creators.
We value music—and the people who create it. They have worth to us. For too long, Black musicians have been mined for their gifts and denied their economic rewards for mastering art forms, creating genres, countering oppression, voicing their humanity, uplifting society, and shaping and re-shaping culture. The Black Rock Coalition exists to hold people accountable for that alienation of opportunity. We will not support cultural amnesia or musical gentrification. We will create opportunities of our own. We will stand—as we have for over 35 years—for the complete creative freedom of artists of color. We will cheer them on today. We'll remember them tomorrow.
It’s why every resource we have—every dollar, every hour, every programmatic effort—goes toward giving outsider Black musicians the support they need to assert their right to be heard and create the works that move culture forward. We are volunteers with skin in the game. We do it for the love of our people and their contributions. We do it for everyone who’s ever had arbitrary limits placed against them.
The BRC is community.
The BRC is cultural exchange across genre, gender, race, class, and ability.
The BRC is a network of some of the best and brightest in Black musicianship.
The BRC is historical correction.
The BRC is visibility for disregarded voices.
The BRC is a grass-roots, volunteer-run, member-driven, non-profit, arts support organization.
The BRC is born of social activism.
The BRC has history.
The BRC has been musically outspoken since 1985.
