TRIBES Magazine Takes Brand Story Global

May 23, 2012 - PRLog -- This summer, TRIBES magazine, the wildly popular award-winning independent entertainment periodical, will celebrate eight years in publication with a move to MagCloud, a content web service which will enable TRIBES to share its brand story worldwide in print and digital formats.

For nearly a decade, TRIBES magazine has been on a mission to support and showcase urban expression. Born out of necessity, one dreary evening in Durham, North Carolina, some eight years ago, TRIBES magazine came to life as citizen artists of The Triangle were calling out for a voice. Already the voice-giver, delivering rags and bullhorns to poets and social activists in the the nation’s capital, TRIBES creator Leslie Cunningham once again answered the call. By day from her desk on the tech floor of the marketing world, Cunningham watched a network of artists and musicians, painters, poets and MCs- collect around her. Her creative force drew their work and it flew into her lap- poems and rhymes, photographs and songs, cartoons and sketches and collages and dancing and essays and more, until Cunningham was overtaken by the collective power of the independent arts. Pen in hand, bobbing eagerly in a sea of blank storyboards, Cunningham sketched an outline for the first issue and, in June 2004, TRIBES magazine was born.

In the beginning, there was no money, only love for community and the desire to support self-sustaining artists generating trends in music, visual arts and the printed word. And for some time the magazine grew in her satchel, held up by the loving hands of friends and artists, fundraisers and contributers, and fans in urban communities who received TRIBES magazine regularly at no cost. Soon, indie artists, musicians and writers from around the world came to rely on TRIBES magazine as a platform for showcasing their talent, while TRIBES’ loyal community of readers came to depend on TRIBES magazine for the freshest stories shaping the future of urban entertainment and culture.

Published by TRIBES Entertainment, TRIBES magazine is one of today's leading sources for independent reporting on urban Arts & Entertainment.  Available quarterly in print and online in digital formats, every issue is throbbing with music, politics, visual art, and photography and bursting with A&E reporting, creative prose, poetry, and personal narratives authored by an exciting team of writers, artists, and critics. Recently nominated "Poetry Magazine of the Year" by the National Poetry Awards 2012, TRIBES magazine has won “Best Online Zine”  (BlackWebAwards, 2009), and “Poetry Magazine of the Year” (National Poetry Awards, 2010) and has reached millions of readers in print and online annually.

In the archives of TRIBES magazine, greats like Damian and Kymani Marley, India.Arie, Tyler Perry, KRS One, Dead Prez, Ludacris, and so many more have featured. Still, the heart of TRIBES magazine is always with the self-sustaining arts and ever-committed to showcasing the countless, lessor known (but no less prolific) independent artists across the globe as they pioneer expression and make essential noise in their communities.

“It’s all about giving voice to expression”, says Cunningham. Armed with the power to sniff out creative talent and star-making spirit, she continues to shine the TRIBES light on up-and coming stars in the dense urban landscape of self produced arts. Robbing from the commercial rich and giving to the media-starved, Cunningham and her scepter TRIBES magazine, gave and continue to give those determined to share something of themselves and their experience, a platform- a page from which to speak their ideas, an opportunity that for some artists may never come again. The underground can be a land of muted voices and unsigned talent. With so much to say and do in the arenas of culture and politics, TRIBES is them; and Cunningham’s power to amplify their creative force and carry their work across the globe grows on.

In an effort to expand TRIBES voice and reach to ever more indie artists and fans, TRIBES magazine will be available for purchase in both a professional-quality print publication, as well as a digital download on personal computers and other mobile devices through MagCloud by June 2012. Visit TRIBES on Magcloud to learn more, http://www.tribesmagazine.magcloud.com.

To view the current issue of TRIBES magazine or to stay updated on TRIBES’ Blog, Visit our website at http:// www.tribesmagazine.com.  

Questions or comments can be emailed to whatsup@tribesmagazine.com.