Ebonnie Rowe: Driven

EBONNIE ROWE: DRIVEN
By Ryan B. Patrick
Pride Entertainment Writer
www.pridenewsmagazine.com
(June 1, 2005)

Those who have worked with African Canadian businesswoman Ebonnie Rowe are well aware she is driven - even without a driver's license.

"I never learned to drive," the affable Rowe tells Pride News Magazine, with a laugh. "I could never commit because these things took precedence."

"These things" include creating a youth mentorship program and being the brains behind the annual Honey Jam all-female music showcase. Rowe, daughter of the late Barbadian diplomat Owen Rowe and the youngest of three children, is a perfectionist at heart and only knows how to do things one way - with 100 percent effort.

It is this effort that was recognized at the YWCA Toronto's Women of Distinction awards show held May 31 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. Rowe was this year's award recipient in the Arts & Entertainment category. The prestigious award (now in it's 25th year) is presented annually by YWCA Toronto to identify and honour seven women and one young woman who have made amazing contributions to improving the lives of other Canadian women.

To be a recipient during the 25th year was an even bigger deal, and Rowe says, "I'm happy, honoured and humbled." The fact that Rowe's mentor - the late African Canadian entrepreneur Beverly Mascoll - was also a recipient of the award makes the award that much more special. She says, "It means a lot to me."

No stranger to community involvement, in 1992, Rowe and two partners kicked off Each One, Teach One, a mentoring program to offer African Canadian youth examples of thriving Black role models. The initiative links youth with professionals working in various trades and occupations and has inspired hundreds of Black youth to chase their dreams.Things started with Each One Teach One and built from there, Rowe says, adding, it was the untimely passing of two close friends that prompted Rowe to start the program.

It was also at this time that she changed her name from Bonnie, adding an "E", to spell Ebonnie, as a sign of support for Black culture. "I was feeling this need to hurry up and do something purposeful. I was very aware of mortality and wanted to leave something behind, a legacy," she says.

"Starting with the [Each One Teach One] program, the ideas succeeded and people really gravitated towards it. The momentum builds, and you become energized by that, and you start thinking about other natural things to start doing; things snowballed from there."

Rowe is probably best known as founder and CEO of PhemPhat Productions.
Launched a decade ago, PhemPhat is a production company designed to offer Canadian female artists a viable outlet to develop and hone their craft, not merely as artists, but also as managers, label owners and promoters.

Rowe has said PhemPhat was borne of the frustration with Canada's male-dominated music industry, a lifeline of sorts for talented female artists who were being dismissed, disrespected and disenfranchised by the system, and who were without a viable outlet for their craft.

Indeed, Rowe has been outspoken about calling out the music industry on its misogyny and less-than-stellar treatment of women.

To showcase the fact that females are far more than highly-objectified "bootyshakers", throughout the years, the urban company has produced a series of events to display women artists: an Urban Music Seminar, the Brown Girls in Da Ring poetry/spoken word event, a Women on Wax DJ series, and of course, the uber-popular Honey Jam, a platform/showcase for up and coming female artists.

Artists who have benefited from the exposure gained from Honey Jam events include Toronto's Jully Black and Grammy winner Nelly Furtado. PhemPhat also produces the annual Honey Jam Magazine, and in 2002, hooked up with record label Universal Music to produce Honey Drops, Canada's first all-female urban CD compilation.

Rowe is currently hard at work for the 10th anniversary Honey Jam show, taking place this summer.

"It's only as I prepare the 10th anniversary [of Honey Jam] and look back through the old photographs, that's when I get a sense of how much we've done. It's overwhelming."

For all of her work and accomplishments, the accolades have come fast and furious.
Rowe's been profiled in Who's Who in Black Canada, Chatelaine's Who's Who of Canadian Women, and she's received the Toronto Sun Woman on the Move Award.
Her achievements have also garnered numerous awards, including the Urban Music Association of Canada's Special Achievement Award in 2000, and the Volunteerism Award from the Province of Ontario in 1997.

What people don't realize is Rowe has accomplished all this while maintaining a full-time job as a legal secretary.

A lot of people have wrongly assumed Honey Jam was the only thing on her plate, Rowe says, but, between Each One Teach One, PhemPhat, organizing meetings, music release parties and seminars, "I was running on adrenaline", Rowe says, and it was taking a toll on her physical and spiritual being.

In fact, in 1999, Rowe announced her "retirement" from putting together Honey Jam; even that was fleeting. "They pulled me back in," Rowe says of the musicians and industry people who didn't want her to give up on the show. She returned a year later.
"I didn't realize how much it meant to everyone. I can't abandon it. When…I look back, at the press clippings, the photos, the videos, I do think that it's been something."

Yet Rowe isn't content to sit back and bask in the glow.
Currently single, Rowe says she's often too busy to sit back and reflect.
"I'm so insanely busy I don't really think about it," she says with a laugh, "but when people write to me, that's when I think, 'Wow, this really meant something to someone'."

Yet, it was the recent and unfortunate passing of her father that has put life in a different perspective for Ms. Rowe. (Mr. Rowe - who was well-known and respected in the African Canadian community - passed away in April, after a long and courageous battle with cancer.) It just heightens the idea of living out loud now, she says.
And, she adds, "The slowing down is a process." "Sometimes it's difficult for me to quiet my mind because, even though I'm focused on the Honey Jam, my body is telling me to slow down."

But Rowe can't stop.

In the works right now are plans to expand Honey Jam into television, opening a PhemPhat clothing line, and she is also excitedly looking at the prospects of organizing a music festival in the Caribbean.

"I feel that I can die today and be happy with what I've contributed to society," Rowe says.

"But I really don't feel that I've scratched the surface in terms of what I can do."

Common "Be" music review

Common
Be
Geffen/Universal



After pushing hip-hop’s boundaries on the psychedelic and poorly received Electric Circus, Chi-town’s own Common hooks up with super-producer Kanye West on what is surely an album of the year candidate. Short but sweet (only 11 tracks), Common hits the ground running with “The Corner (featuring The Last Poets) and things only get better from there. To borrow words from comedian Dave Chappelle, Com spits hot fire on joints “The Food,” “Testify” and the epic “It’s Your World.” Even John Legend joins in on the fun with the soulful “Faithful” and “They Say.” Common’s lyrical dexterity combined with West’s signature production is a surefire win. Be serves to remind us that hip-hop can be witty, intelligent, mature and commercial all over again.