Rain Couldn't Stop DENA Artists from #BringingItTogether in the November 2016 Free Artist Photo Shoot

After the success of the #BringingItTogether October 2016 Free Artist Photo Shoot, Mistah Wilson &

Percy Johnson were excited for next month’s event. This time, they put a little more love into it. With only a couple of weeks to make it happen, they went out to get a photo backdrop with the logos of ThaWilsonBlock Magazine, Percy’s Portrait Photography, and a hashtag of #DENA to represent where the movement is taking place.

Before the October 2016 shoot, the news was forecasting rain on the day of the event. That would be tragic since everyone is meeting up outside in McDonald Park. As the day grew in, it was almost cancelled. Mistah Wilson decided to go along with it and it turned out to be a beautiful sunny day. For the next event, the news forecasted rain. Mistah Wilson decided to call the weather’s bluff. But, this time, the weather was for real.

After much preparation and money spent to put this event together, we were expecting a much bigger turnout than the first one. On the morning of the event, the sun beamed life onto La Pintoresca. But, by 2p at Jefferson Park, the clouds were coming in fast. It was unbelievable because it was such a

sunny day to begin with.

The event started at 12p and it hadn’t yet rained. DJ AJ was holdin’ it down with local, Pasadena music, neo-soul, & funk jams. The photo backdrop was against the sidewall of the restrooms and nobody had any problems coming together for the cause. Soon enough, it starts to rain sideways! The people who came stayed through the rain for the most of the event. I mean, these artists were troopers. But, once it did start raining, we believe it deterred a lot of people from coming out.

“People were pulling up to the event, but kept going once it started to rain,” says an attendee. Although it rained, we were fortunate enough to have a few large trees over everything. They were still able to eat the BBQ & Teriyaki chicken wins, Pizza, Salad, & Cookies.

“We strongly believe that the rain deterred people from coming out to participate in the

#BringingItTogether November 2016 Free Artist Photo Shoot. We’d still like to thank everybody who had interest and wanted to come out. We’d also like to thank all those who came out and those who won raffle prizes. We can’t do this without you,” Mistah Wilson says after the event.

During the event, the backdrop was moved under one of the large trees. Even though it rained, a few people still showed up and participated. It was truly amazing to see these artists battle through the rain to be a part of their community. It still turned out to be a great event with about double the amount of photos taken. While it was going on, it felt like a failure. But, in hindsight, it’s pretty admirable to see artists endure the rain for the cause. That’s a great milestone we achieved together that we can reflect on later to inspire us moving forward.

Close to $1,000 was spent to put this event together only for their parade to be rained on! Mistah

Wilson takes responsibility for the lack of preparation on his part and says the next series of event(s) leading up to the Summer will be held indoors and will be taking place in the evening time. For this event, it wasn’t so much about who they were as individuals, but who they are as individuals coming together.

Mistah Wilson’s vision for this event is slowly taking form. He knew that October & November’s shoot had to be done informally so that he could gain some momentum to brand the event through the Gold Carpet. On Friday December 30th from 8p-12a, Mistah Wilson & ThaWilsonBlock Magazine will be bringing you the #BringingItTogether Open Mic Gold Carpet Photo Shoot & Drum Circle! Hope to see you there!