Dave “Mecca” Crump
David Crump aka “Mecca” is the co-founder and co-director of Project 2043 and The Muse.
The Muse is a vibrant community space, the home of Project 2043, that showcases the wealth of talent, knowledge, and power in the community. Black artists, entrepreneurs, and youth workers use the space as a hub for collaboration while working towards their vision of a healthy and economically stable community by the year 2043. The Project 2043 initiative works to build inter-generational bridges working with both the elders of the community and youth to impact historical inequities.
From a very young age Mecca learned the value of giving back to his community. He was drawn to community work by his grandmother who was in charge of his local church’s daycare in their small town in Southern Texas. Any free time Mecca had, he spent helping his grandmother at the daycare. When asked what inspired him to work in community development, Mecca says, “I think it’s the way I was raised”. He is standing outside of the Muse and stops to help a local elderly man into the building to escape the cold. He then continues to say,
“I was raised by a community, not just my grandmother, but the grandmothers in my neighborhood - they helped raise me. So it’s just something that was instilled into me, it’s always been about, you know, it takes a village. So I really was a living embodiment of that.”
Mecca (left) with Hodari (back) and owners of the Muse: Joe Fergus Sr. (front) & Joe Fergus Jr. (right).
Mecca (front) with members of Project 2043, Born Bi-Kim (left), Dave Lemmel (back) and Sobek (right).
As one of the only white families living in a predominantly Black and Mexican American community he says “early on I knew what racism was” he describes himself as being “keenly aware” of the daily injustices and inequities taking place around him. Those are experiences are what drove him towards community work, he says that before knowing the terminology he saw the inequities in his own community and “just felt moved to do something about it.”
Mecca was eager to continue his journey building and developing communities specifically in South Africa. He was accepted to a predominantly black college in Cape Town, South Africa. Unfortunately, his family feared for his safety. To ease his family's concerns, Mecca decided to defer his acceptance but continue to pursue his passion in the US. Mecca’s first job after high school was at Pine Street Inn which provides housing, shelter, outreach, and job training to homeless individuals and those experiencing housing insecurity.
Mecca (right) with Project 2043 member, Landmine.
While studying at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, Mecca connected with like-minded people who also wanted to use hip hop as a mode of expression and conflict resolution in the community. He started to build and develop the concept of a hip hop culture center. Over time Mecca grew a large network of artists and community activists both in his home state of Texas and in Boston.
In Boston he began to develop hip hop programs and youth programs. Mecca has the unique ability to rally people, especially youth, around important issues. After losing funding for his programs, Mecca found himself working in a trauma response program at Children’s Hospital. In this role, he was supporting families and victims who had experienced violence. Mecca found his role had grown beyond the hospital into the streets and into homes. He continued his work in trauma response at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. In a full circle moment, Mecca became the essence of his grandmother, serving as the support of the community beyond professional responsibility to an obligation and commitment to the people.
Mecca waiting to get his Covid booster at the Muse, part of an initiative to increase health education and access to health resources in Grove Hall. The artwork pictured is by Via’s World.
Like most people, the pandemic halted Mecca’s work but his vision for his community is unrelenting. He describes that his vision for Project 2043 is to “put young people in a position to learn to be self-sufficient, to realize their real potential, and come up with their own solutions to their own problems”. In just 6 months, Mecca and his team, David Lemmel (co-director), Born Bi-Kim, and Sara Kahlo, founded Project 2043 and opened the Muse, a space whose walls are lined with the work of local artists and through whose doors people of all ages to filter in and out all day long.
Through 33 years of doing this work, Mecca remains dedicated to the values instilled in him by his grandmother. As the conversation ends he says,
