Don't Miss a Beat, Inc.
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Speaker 1:
I am not a statistic. I will achieve only great things. [inaudible 00:00:10]. I can do anything I set my mind set to.
Speaker 2:
I am not a statistic. I will achieve only great things. I can do anything I set my mind to.
Speaker 3:
Every day Don't Miss A Beat inspires kids through artistic discovery. Many of these kids are expected to lose their way. Declaring that they are not a statistic and that they will achieve only great things tells destiny to shift the preexisting narrative expected of their lives. Where there is heart and hope, there's transformation. (silence).
Speaker 3:
We are Don't Miss A Beat. We can do anything we set our mind to.
Don't Miss a Beat, Inc.
The mission of Don't Miss a Beat, Inc. (DMAB) is "...to blend music, art, academic achievement, and civic engagement to inspire and enlighten children and teens in the Riverside, Brooklyn and Woodstock communities in Jacksonville, Florida."
Through performing arts, Don't Miss a Beat transforms the lives of At-Hope Kids and prepare them for a bright future.
DMAB was founded in 2008 as the brainchild of Ulysses Owens, Jr. and his family. Ulysses grew up in Jacksonville. His parents introduced him to music early and he started playing drums when he was just two years old. Ulysses parents, especially his mother, Gwendolyn, helped to cultivate his talents by enrolling him in classical piano and music lessons. "My mom always said that she wanted me to be more than just a church musician," Ulysses explains. Ulysses attended the Douglas Anderson School of the Arts and went on to graduate with a full scholarship to the Juilliard School. Here, Ulysses became part of the school's inaugural jazz program. After graduating from Juilliard in 2006 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, he traveled the world performing as a jazz drummer. "The more he traveled, the more he kept thinking about home". After hearing about Jacksonville's high dropout rate of struggling youths, Ulysses and his family designed a program to help suspended youths stay in school. This program helped these youths to keep up with their schoolwork so that "...they wouldn't miss a beat." Since its founding, DMAB programming has evolved to include the performing arts, academic enrichment, and civic engagement.
