“Charity is no substitute for justice withheld"

- St Augustine

Technology, at its best, helps us realize long-held dreams.  

Airplanes fulfill our dream to fly. Cell phones fulfill our dream to be connected to each other. And now, technology has made it possible for another deep-seated dream to be realized:  the dream of music flowing through the ether like tap water. An endless stream of music. That dream, that heavenly vision, as most of us know, is technologically possible today.  

The challenge before us is not a technological challenge. It is as a human challenge. Sustaining the vision of endlessly flowing music reaching all corners of the world and our hearts requires not just a technological vision but a social and economic one. What is required, what we want, is a human exchange….a HUMANE exchange. We dream a dream not just of beauty, but of fairness, and justice. We want to receive beauty, but we also want to give thanks for the gift. And we want our giving back to be as beautiful as the dream received. We want it to be generous and unexploited. This dream, of endlessly flowing music fueled by fairness, is the foundation, the heart and soul, of mim.fm.

Some may be skeptical. Some may believe that a model built upon the hope of a generous and just exchange, the expectation that we want to give as much as we want to receive, is not a dream but a pipe dream. The skeptics, the cynics, are wrong. Evidence is beginning to pour in that visions built upon the ideals of beauty, justice, and compassion not only survive but thrive. SAME Cafe, a donation-based restaurant in Denver, has been building community by providing affordable-for-all healthy and delicious food since 2006. Humble Bundle, the independent “pay what you want” media distributor that donates a portion of each sale to humanitarian causes, has been going strong since 2010. And the list does not stop there.     

An endless stream of music sustained by a humane exchange. That is the vision of mim.fm. It is a beautiful dream, a dream we all share. It is possible. And we are making it real.  

Because music is medicine.

Music has been the thread that stitches together the fabric of community, and the suture for the wounds of the human heart.  The mission of mim.fm is to use music as the common denominator in both social and personal healing efforts, by working with local humanitarian organizations to draw attention to pressing social issues and raise revenue to help solve them.  We are also committed to actualizing a sustainable vision of music distribution, by ensuring that the co-equal goals of affordable access for all consumers and fair compensation for all artists are realized. 

mim.fm is a product of the efforts of several outstanding individuals who are making mim.fm a practical reality.  Here are just a few of those individuals:

Ian Mentken, Founder / Lead Designer

Ian started mim.fm in 2007 following the death of his mother, inspired by her struggles as a homeless woman on the streets of New York. Finding healing in music following his loss, Ian started mim.fm to shift the paradigm away from music as a commodity and towards music as medicine, recognizing that music plays an essential roll in personal and social wellbeing. He started developing a non-profit model of music distribution designed to provide full access to music for all while providing truly fair trade for the musicians. The model likewise amplifies music’s natural capacity to unite the community around urgent social issues.

Ian is also the founder of The Mobile Sanctuary Project, designed to extend the dignity of personal space to our brothers and sisters on the streets and challenge biases and misperceptions about the nature and causes of homelessness.

Javier Romera, CTO

Javier Romero brings a unique skill set to mim.fm, he is both an accomplished musician / songwriter and a professional designer / developer / programmer. 

With his former bands Mistletoe and Cherry Tempo, Javier has toured the country, showcased at SXSW, and has has song appearances on MTV and international films. Javier currently has 2 solo albums out under the name Strange Magic. Javier has lent his talents to many humanitarian causes, including The United Way and Save the Bosque. 

Javier has also been a designer, developer, and software programmer for 20+ years. He has extensive expertise in project and product management having co-founded and run a boutique development firm called zByte for 5 years. Including hundreds of websites, Javier has designed and developed software applications for Social Media, Mapping and GPS, Document Signing, E-commerce, Academic Search Engines, and Neuroscience Research.

Hakim Bellamy, Advisor

As the Inaugural Poet Laureate of Albuquerque, NM (2012-2014), Hakim Bellamy is a national and regional Poetry Slam Champion and holds three consecutive collegiate poetry slam titles at the University of New Mexico. His poetry has been published on the Albuquerque Convention Center, on the outside of a library, in inner-city buses and in numerous anthologies across the globe. Bellamy was recognized as an honorable mention for the University of New Mexico Paul Bartlett Ré Peace Prize for his work as a community organizer and journalist in 2007 and later awarded the Career Achievement Award for the same Prize in 2018. In 2013 he was awarded the Emerging Creative Bravos Award by Creative Albuquerque and was named a W. K. Kellogg Foundation Fellow as well as a Food Justice Resident Artist at Santa Fe Art Institute in 2014. Bellamy was named “Best Poet” in the Weekly Alibi’s annual Best of Burque poll every year between 2010 and 2017. His first book, SWEAR (West End Press/UNM Press) won the Tillie Olsen Award for Creative Writing from the Working Class Studies Association. He is the co-creator of the multimedia Hip Hop theater production Urban Verbs: Hip-Hop Conservatory & Theater that has been staged throughout the country. He facilitates youth writing workshops for schools, jails, churches, prisons and community organizations in New Mexico and beyond. Bellamy has had his work featured in Rattle, AlterNet, Truthout, CounterPunch and on the nationally syndicated Tavis Smiley Radio Show. In 2017 he was named a Kennedy Center Citizen Artist Fellow and he's served as the on-air television host for New Mexico PBS's ¡COLORES! Program for three years. The proud father of a 12 year-old miracle, Bellamy was recently appointed Deputy Director for the City of Albuquerque’s Cultural Services Department by Mayor Tim Keller in 2018 and is the founding president of Beyond Poetry LLC.  

Hakim’s journey as a poet has come full circle as of late, wearing the hat of musician. A product of the Hip Hop generation and influenced by his parents extensive wax collection (which included the likes of Janis Joplin, Sly and The Family Stone, Carlos Santana & Buddy Miles, The Grateful Dead, Gil Scott Heron, The Temptations, Teddy Pendergrass & The Last Poets), Bellamy is equal parts musical artist, archivist and archeologist. He digs music. Piano lessons, recitals and many years singing in the church choir prepared him for the funk-infused, experimental yet melodic brand of Hip Hop that he produces today with creative partner Colin “Diles” Hazelbaker. His eclectic music background and vision is literally front and center as lead vocalist, emcee and singer-songwriter in his band Waylaid (with Hoofer/Tap Dancer Donne “Wychdokta” Lewis on feet and bass, and Stuart “Fish Out ‘O Water” Smith on guitar, percussion, peddles and buttons). A staple in the Albuquerque music scene he's been part of many musical configurations, including Law of Attraction, Broken Bread Winner (formerly VOW), and more recently Merican Slang. He’s shared the musical stage with Zion-I, The Wailers, The Last Poets, Amiri Baraka, Cecil Taylor & Blacklisted Individuals. For over two years he has staffed a bi-weekly music column in Albuquerque. In 2013 Bellamy won his first New Mexico Music Award in the category of Best Hip-Hop for his song Ain’t Nothing Better Than That produced by Tuman Productions (ABQ, NM). His second New Mexico Music Award came in 2015 for Deja de Matar (Stop This Killing) a collaboration with Baracutanga.  

Pace VanDevender, Consultant

A renowned, award-winning physicist and entrepreneur, Pace VanDevender is a Principal in VanDevender Enterprises LLC and Emeritus Vice President of Sandia National Laboratories.  Prior to his retirement in 2005 to have more time for research in physics, Pace served as Vice President of Science & Technology and Partnerships and Chief Technology Officer at Sandia.

Pace is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science and is a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers.  In 1991 he received the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Award for Physics.  

He earned a Ph.D. in Physics from the Imperial College of Science and Technology, University of London, England in 1974, where he was a Marshall Scholar; an M.A. in Physics from Dartmouth College in 1971; and a B.A. in Physics from Vanderbilt University in 1969.

As dedicated as he is to his research, Pace is at least as passionate about community service and helping those in need.  For over a decade, Pace has been a volunteer (and more recently Volunteer Coordinator) for Family Promise, an NGO that supports homeless and low-income families, as well as a member of the Home Repair Team, an organization of volunteers who keep the homes of elderly people safe and functional. 
 

Brian Hall, Photographer

Brian is an Atlanta-based Music, Editorial, and Portrait Photographer.  As you can tell by his photo on our site (that's his crazy amazing shot of the rocker dude leaping from who knows where towards his rabid fans), his work is, in a word, stunning.  In more than one word, his photos are unique, captivating and beautiful.

Brian is not only dedicated to his craft but also passionate about the ideal of giving back through his art.   A perfect fit for mim.fm.  Be sure to check out more of his work at http://www.brianhallphotography.net/

Aaron Dieppa, Photographer

Aaron has been a practicing professional photographer for several years.  His heartfelt image of the homeless man on the public bench, which currently graces one of our blog entries, was our homepage photo for several months while we focused on the issue of family homelessness.  More of his work can be found at aarondieppa.com.