Har Mar Superstar launches education fund after being accused of cultural appropriation

Earlier this year, Har Mar Superstar (aka Sean Tillmann) was accused of cultural appropriation by producer/composer Afrokeys for doing a touring Sam Cooke tribute show. The two musicians battled it out over Twitter at first, but later they met face to face and “[their] discussion was incredibly enlightening,” said Har Mar. As a result, Har Mar has decided to donate $4,000 of the proceeds from the Sam Cooke tributes to organizations “that will foster education and music opportunities within the African American community,” and he also launched a GoFundMe to “hopefully match (triple? quadruple?)” his donation.

He writes:

I’m Sean Tillmann, and I tour under the name Har Mar Superstar. Earlier this year I was asked to play at the Dakota Jazz Club in Minneapolis, and I took it as a perfect opportunity to do a tribute set to my one of my favorite singer/ songwriters, Sam Cooke. I was careful to pick only the pop and love songs from his catalog out of respect for the cultural implications I may raise if I had performed his protest and/ or gospel material. The show was a runaway hit and became a national tour due to demand from fans and venues across the US.

As the tour progressed I started receiving some criticism back home from a fellow musician who believed my show to be an act of appropriation of black culture. The nature of the tweets/ posts were hostile toward me from the beginning, and we both, regrettably behaved childishly online. The whole situation spun out in a way neither of us would have imagined, and eventually we met face to face to have a difficult but necessary discussion. We realized that we may never see eye to eye on the issue, but in the light of day, through listening to each other and attempting to understand where each other was coming from, we are very similar people. Our discussion was incredibly enlightening.

You can do your own digging if you choose to. This clip is focused on the positive outcome of our conversation:
http://www.citypages.com/music/afrokeys-and-har-mar-superstar-squash-sam-cooke-appropriation-beef/486808731

As we discussed race, privilege, and systemic injustice within our own music community and beyond here in Minneapolis I felt my eyes being opened. Every day is a learning opportunity, and I decided to donate a large portion of my tour proceeds, $4000 in total to be exact, to 4 different organizations in the Twin Cities that will foster education and music opportunities within the African American community. Through this process it dawned on me that maybe the hundreds of people who got involved in the discussion could help too, so I set up this GoFundMe as an opportunity to chip in and hopefully match (triple? quadruple?) my donation for maximum impact.

You can read more and donate here.