The Donuts

What a weekend.

              When we came together over a year ago, this past weekend was exactly the type of community gathering we hoped to create. Art, music, good vibes, and positive people all coming together in one space… it really is an unbelievable feeling when you set an intention and achieve it. Whether it’s personal goals or work quotas, we hope you can identify with what we’re feeling right now. Now, as you reach milestones and see what you’re made of, new visions and endeavors arise. “Every idea needs a version 1”. Through this beta period, we’ve tried, experienced, reflected, and grown. Now we’re ready to build The Donuts 2.0, we’re ready to do work!

               Whether it’s a food drive, a community function, a flash mob, a camp for empowering teens, a concept video, or fundraising for a cause, we want to get things done. We want to do it with heart, we want to do it with a purpose, and we want to leave a positive impact. If you’re down with that, then let’s do this together! 

Here’s our latest attempt at describing who we are:

          The efforts of one person can be great, but the impact of a community striving to create positive change is limitless. We are committed to connecting people who want to create that change and make the world a better place. We’re The Donuts, and it’s nice to meet you. The Donuts are a collective of folks from different cultures and backgrounds; teachers, DJs, dancers, emcees, photographers, designers, social workers, and much more.

                                                            We aspire to:
-Bring people together through events and initiatives that serve a direct cause, raise awareness, and spark meaningful dialogue.
-Provide a platform for people with different talents and ideas to come together and express themselves.
-Inspire others to take action and make positive change in their communities.

           Empowered people accomplish great things. This is what we’re about, and we welcome Donuts of all flavors, shapes, & sizes. Like your local donut shop on the corner, our door is always open.

Eh? If you feel us, holler! We’ll keep you posted on what we’re up to this summer. In the meantime, enjoy these photos and relive The Brewery with us. Part of the weekend never dies.

Here are a few photos from the weekend, view the full album HERE.

Greetings fam!

Man, it’s been a nice two months of reflection since the 1-year event at Proof.  Slow and steady has been our motto, mainly because we knew from the beginning it’d be a learning process for us as individuals to figure out how to balance our own lives, responsibilities, and career aspirations with this desire to serve our community together. We apologize for the lack of consistency, but this being a not-for-profit endeavor we hope you understand Donuts gotta eat too!  

Lots of things have been going on behind the scenes, and we have some really exciting news to share! Our next community gathering is going down at the BREWERY ART WALK in LA, Saturday April 27 & Sunday April 28.

This once Pabst Blue Ribbon brewery is now a live/work space for artists. Twice a year they open up the area for an artwalk, and we’re honored by the opportunity to participate! Big ups to Suey Creative for hosting us. Learn more about the LA Brewery!

Food, drinks, music, art, community. More details TBA. Save the date!

Friends!
As we continue on with Jelly-Filled Fridays, reaching out to like-minded striving & starving artists is so important to us. Paying it forward to good peoples pursuing creative paths is why we began this event, and we feel blessed to even be in this position to facilitate these positive experiences. So cheers to you for helping us keep this going, and here’s what we created this month to thank you :D

So for October, we’re stoked to be collaborating with electronic music blog SoundLogik. We’re calling it the “Two Party System” as a nod to the upcoming elections, but mainly to recognize the coming together of two creative communities to produce one awesome experience. The best part about this is we get to host some of the artists out of their community! First, let us introduce Mr.Y:

This dude, as you can see, blends the arts of beatboxing, producing, and mixing to create an incredible live music experience. Every piece of sound is organic, with little to no effects, making what he does not only damn unique, but really effing difficult!! It’s with great excitement we’ll be hosting him in the basement, starting at 10pm.
Mr.Y - thisisMrY EP

DJ duo MathMatix are coming out of San Diego with a fresh taste on BASS. After listening to their latest original production, Bass Division, we’re finding it hard to believe they just got on the scene in 2012. These guys definitely have a bright future ahead of them, and we’re just happy to be a stop along their journey. Check them headlining the mainroom from 12-2am!!

And the night wouldn’t be complete without your residents, the Groove Monsters. They’ll be on the decks in the mainroom, so get them dancing shoes ready and get ready to sweat. Check them out from 10pm-midnight!

As for art, some of our best Jelly-Filled Friday memories have been the amazing exhibits we’ve been able to feature in our “Basement Series”. This week we have an exhibit called “Safe Travels”, a three-week photo journey through Europe by 3 of our good friends.

12FV / In House Goods / They Shoot Film

“We journeyed all throughout Europe for fun, the views, the landscape, and the pictures. We skipped around to Iceland, Spain, Morocco, Switzerland, Italy, and Turkey, and came back with a plethora of photographs to share. Traveling has mostly changed us for the better, but we also got a speeding ticket in Iceland and duped into Moroccan carpet.” -12fv

Here’s the Facebook event, come out come out old and new faces! This Friday is gonna be a good one. We hope to see you there <3

For those that have been with us since February, it’s been quite the journey. From the first art exhibit to the Coachella Photo Booth, from the comedy show to last month’s The Donut Cellar, it’s pretty awesome being able to say we’ve accomplished what we originally set out to do! Looking through all the photo album sets, seeing old & new faces smiling, dancing, drinking, yelling, and straight cheesin’ is amazing. Take a look for yourself!

The Donuts Present: Jelly Filled Fridays @ The Donut Cellar from Mark Batstone on Vimeo.

This Friday we bring you Jelly-Filled Fridays 8/3 @ Proof Bar. The basement will be transformed into “The Bassment” as we bring out our hommies Sharon Isadora (10-1130pm) & DJ St3vil (1130-1am) to bump some dope beats and bass music. Upstairs we have DJ DZ (10-1130pm) spinning some good ol’ hip-hop/top40 classics, & Groove Monsters (1130-close) making your feet happy with a variety set. Cruise through to Orange County and get funky with us!!

ADDITIONALLY, please help us wish a Happy Birthday to Adele Joven & Sharon Isadora, as well as say farewell to some dear friends as they take their journeys to other parts of the world. Let’s fill Tomo, Wade, and Darnell with that Donut love & positivity so that they embark on their new adventures feeling goooooood….!

As always, free entry, free donuts, & free hugs. Come play.

By now we hope you’ve gotten a glimpse of who we are and what we’re about. One branch of the Donut tree is our monthly event, Jelly-Filled Fridays, at Proof Bar in Downtown Santa Ana Arts District. With this event our aim is to showcase multiple forms of creativity and the members of our community who are traveling down artistic paths! As the months go by, our hope is to bring more artists along on the journey, while inspiring others to pursue their passions. Like Coolio said,

Come along and ride on a fantastic voyage!

February 3

March 2

Save the date! April 6 we’re teaming up with our friends at ThreadSence to bring you our Coachella Kick-Off shindig. Details coming soon, be the first to know what’s good:

Facebook.com/TheDonutsPage
Twitter.com/GotDonuts

Facebook.com/ThreadSence
Twitter.com/ThreadSence

p.s. The hommies Dr. Oc2pus, Sambot, and the Shiver Crew are hosting SHIVER ME TIMBERS this Saturday (3/24) in Little Tokyo. Always a good time, especially with our very own Time Machine spinning some tunes! Here’s a dedication re-edit by Dr. Oc2pus to get you pumped for the weekend:

Happy Friday!