Soul Fusion: WISE Music for Change
The Women Invested to Save Earth Fund (WISE) is a nonprofit, global equity enterprise based in the USA, advancing healing for people, economies, and the planet, including Black and Indigenous communities worldwide.
Since its founding in 2020 by Dr. Jacqueline “Bouvier” Copeland, WISE has provided funding of about $1 million USD to women, Afrodescendant, Indigenous-founded, and allied social enterprises in Africa and the Americas.
It also has been the convener of Black Philanthropy Month, a global movement to document, celebrate, and advance Afrodescendant philanthropy and capital access for economic justice that has engaged 100 million people in 60 countries.
In 2021, recognizing the AfroDiaspora’s rich cultural capital as well as the economic injustice and appropriation rampant in our creative economy, WISE established its “Music for Change” program to generate funding for Black, Indigenous, women, and allied cultural innovators worldwide and increase community capital for fair economic opportunity and justice.
The multi-trillion global cultural and music economy is an underutilized resource to generate community innovation funding. Marginalized innovators create much of the world’s cultural capital and product. But little of the resulting capital recycles back to their communities of origin. The world’s most creative communities tend to be the poorest.
So, our founder, Dr. Jackie “Bouvier” Copeland created Soul Fusion, a trademarked WISE Arts for Change program, to advance cultural preservation and equity, public awareness, and excellence in Afromusic, arts, and culture for a better, more equitable and just world.
Soul Fusion includes three initiatives: 1) an AfroDiaspora Music public educational training and events program; 2) a record label supporting innovative, authentic exemplars of the Afrodescendant music heritage and future; and 3) a Mexico-based music ensemble presenting live performances of Afromusic, founded with outstanding Afrodescendant musicians, Danielle Simmons and StephyLoren.
Dr. Copeland is an award-winning singer-songwriter, executive producer, and philanthropist performing under the stage name of “Bouvier.” Also an emergent samba dancer, trained by prominent Brazilian samba teachers, she performed live in Rio de Janeiro during Carnival 2024 with the Portola School, which resulted in her recent album, “I Wish You Love, Brazil: Bouvier Live!” recorded at her Rio de Janeiro concert of the same name. You can listen to Dr. Copeland’s music and learn more about her background as a multifaceted social justice artist and Black Diaspora scholar-advocate at bouvier.world.
The Soul Fusion ensemble specializes in the music of the global Black Diaspora. Its musicians are Afrodescendants from Colombia, Mexico, the USA, and Brazil. Guest vocalists from the Caribbean, Central America and Africa further its unique fusion sound, appealing to audiences of all backgrounds.
Soul Fusion Ensembles lead musicians are Danielle Simmons of the USA, specializing in classic and contemporary soul and R&B music; and StephyLoren, an Afro-Colombian virtuoso in her country’s music traditions as well as contemporary rock, folk, and hip hop music; and Bouvier, presenting Dr. Copeland’s sultry, earthy fusion blues, jazz, R&B, funk, reggae, axé, salsa, bossa nova, and samba sound. For more on Soul Fusion, contact programs@theWISEfund.org. Click here for more about Soul Fusion’s critically acclaimed new album available on all major music platforms. And check out Bouvier’s solo release Mother Tongue: An AfroDiaspora Journey.
Bouvier (aka Dr. Jackie “Bouvier” Copeland) is producing and headlining WISE’s Music Mystic: Sound Healing Experience in beautiful San Miguel de Allende, Mexico on October 3, 2026 at 3 PM hosted by famed lifestyle entrepreneur, Michelle Wedderburn at Hacienda ELM. Tickets available at https://tinyurl.com/MusicMysticSMA.
Combining its funding and cultural equity mission, The Women Invested to Save Earth Fund (WISE) used the occasion of Black Philanthropy Month 2026 to announce expansion of its fiscal agency services for artists preserving, advancing, or educating the community about the history and impact of music with African roots.
The initiative increases Afromusicians’ fundraising capacity, boosting their fiscal health while benefitting the often marginalized communities whose cultures create the music.
See slides below for an overview and the Afromusic Fiscal Agency Services brochure for more details, including the application due November 1, 2026 to be a part of the initiative. Contact programs@theWISEfund.org with questions.
