“We want people to come and be able to enjoy themselves at some fun and unique events and to enjoy a culture that the city doesn’t really have,” says Intellectual Ratchet founder and CEO Ja’Mel Ware. “We have some really exciting surprises that are going to happen at all of these summer events and as far as entertainment goes … we really love to showcase local artists – that’s one of the biggest pushes that we do, recognizing the arts that are already in our city. We have some great stuff to showcase, lots of good food to eat, and lots of cool people to meet.”
The Intellectual Ratchet Summer Season kicked off its “Summer ’17” with a bang this past Friday night with their First Fridays event at the Nomad. The event was titled ‘The Black Spectrum’ and featured DJ Lyriks and DJ M White along with a clothing showcase by African-n-American Fits (photo attached of clothing).
“It was a nice combination of all things blackness,” Ware laughs. “The first party was just one of many fun things we have planned for this summer. We’re getting all of this information out there about Summer ’17 so people can mark their calendars for the summer because summer calendars fill up fast.”
Summer ’17 is the itinerary of events this summer for Intellectual Ratchet (IR), which plays an important role in engaging Millennials and young professionals of color in a city that often sees talented black and Latino professionals leave for bigger cities because they don’t feel welcome. Two years ago, Ware founded IR with the purpose of uniting diverse groups through a culture of ratchetness and intellectualism.
(In His Eye Photography)
Ware is every excited about IR’s big event coming up, the Madison Night Market, a celebration of Madison’s unique and inspiring creative culture, which will take place downtown on Thursday, June 8.
At the Madison Night Market, vendors will showcase handmade products, local art, artisan gifts, pre-packaged foods and fresh produce. The event will include live music, artists painting on site, games, special visiting food carts and pop-up restaurant experiences. Some of the Madison Night Market highlights include:
◆ The Lisa Link Park Pancert, hosted by DJ M White and featuring Skylar Nahn, Broadway Muse, and Landon Devon, will take place on Jun 8. This is a free concert and a part of the Madison Night Market.
◆ Mando’s World, hosted by DJ Mando, will take place on Gilman Street at 6 p.m.
◆ Fivy, a Milwaukee-based artist specializing in astral jazz-infused Hip-Hop with Alt-R&B will also be going on as part of the Night Market. “She has a very mellow, cool sound,” Ware says.
◆The Graffiti Wall with Adam Villegas, an art project sponsored by Dane Arts and L.O.U.D.. “He’ll be teaching folks how to do spraypaint tag,” Ware says.
“I’m super-excited about all of those four wild experiences and that is how we’re going to kick off summer with one crazy night,” Ware adds.
The very next night, Intellectual Ratchet will be at Tavernakya for 2nd Fridays called ‘Late Night At TK’IR will be also be doing a series of parties in June, July, and August called “Sunset Parties.” Each one will have a different element involved.
“We’re super-excited about the ‘Sunset Parties’ series because as the summer goes on the sun sets later and later and it provides more time for people to network,” Ware says. “We anticipate that there will always be a certain amount of the same people that show up and hopefully plenty of new faces as the summer progresses.
“We wanted to do this series to provide opportunities for more introverted people to mingle with more extroverted folks because we know that some people want to party and some people just want to come out and have a few drinks and talk, so we want to make sure we have a platform for that,” he adds.
The biggest thing IR will be doing this summer is the second annual Rooftop Bash: Rooftop Romp on Friday, July 21. The space for the event will be sponsored by Uline.
“We decided to name it that off the craze of the male Romper. My original team and the team I work with had a conversation about how important it was that we continue to create spaces that they can come and bring their full selves,” Ware says. “There were a lot of negative things people said about the male romper. There’s been a lot of crazy conversations about a piece of clothing. We want to reinforce that our spaces are made for anyone, including someone who wants to wear a male romper.”
Soooooo. You got your romper ready already for the event, Ja’Mel?
“I don’t have a romper ready. But I will have one by July 21st, “Ware laughs. “I do have some nice legs … gonna show them off.”
IR routinely partners with local businesses to expose their guests to a uniquely Madison experience. Their creative and exciting events and get-togethers have grown in popularity as more and more people find out about them. Summer ’17 events, Ware says, are looking to bring it to the next level.
“These events are extremely important for just getting outside of your normal network. What we’ve seen quite a bit at our events is the intermixing of generations, which is really dope to see,” Ware says. “Our largest demographics for our membership and people who come to the event is 21-32. We have a drop off from 33-39, where we speculate that people are starting to have families, but then what we see is a rise in people in their 40s and over that attend our event. The result has been this really dope intermixing of not only race and ethnicities but of generations.
“Just being able to create environments where folks can come and meet people they wouldn’t normally meet and to network with … that’s really important to the vibrancy of our city,” Ware adds. “It’s great to know that we have spaces that attract millennials but that we also have opportunities for building cross-generational relationship building. And at the end of the night, whoever is left, you still get to party.”
