|
Community
Cultural Events
KL
is known for staying rooted in the Uptown Community by offering
special events throughout the year. The goal of the Community
Cultural Events is to create safe spaces for cross-cultural
dialogue while supplying the neighborhood with free to little
charge events. These events have ranged from a community forum
on Hip Hop And media exploitation in collaboration with Public
Enemy’s Professor Griff, A youth Hip Hop Summit in collaboration
with DePaul University, an Arts Activism and Exploration day
with Crossroads Fire This Time Foundation, The Uptown Hip
Hop Arena with Truman College, Open Mindz with Clarendon Park,
Drop In program has facilitated discussions with School of
America Watch, the Immoloakee Workers, COURAJ and affordable
housing/gentrification issues, undocumented immigrants in
Chicago, and the C# prisoners and several forums with University
of Wisconsin concerning ways to increase access to college
for Chicago public school students and KL program participants;
These programs/events aim to create collaborations and partnerships
with youth, cultural and arts organizations that share similar
missions. KL often partners with local community organizations,
business, and educational institutions in order to provide
these outreach opportunities to our constituents and the international
world. Through these series of events, KL is committed to
improving the vitality of our communities.
Uptown
Summer Festival: An annual cultural event is
the Uptown Summer Festival and “Hip Hop Arena”
stage. Here community comes together to enjoy great entertainment,
venders, and food. Inter-active booths are set up for the
community where they can play in basketball tournaments,
ride on ponies, create murals and much more. This event
has been a successful collaboration with Truman College
and the Alderman’s Office for the past 9 years.
Open
Mindz Open Mics-- are another way KL seeks
to use its community events to reach out to the community.
This venue encourages youth to bring their family out to
support them as they dare to claim the mic and express themselves
by first partaking in an educational workshop, which is
followed by youth and adult community members sharing personal
stories in the form of poetry, dance, rap, visual art, and
music. Once a month the Kuumba Lynx Performance Ensemble
host these Open Mics in efforts to raise awareness on the
value of Urban Arts within the community and the validity
of youth stories while providing another alternative safe
haven for youth to be at rather than in these harsh streets
of “ The Chi”.
Many of the KL cultural events and projects seek to bring
together an international collection of marginalized youth,
scholars, activists and artists that represent a range of
racial, gender and national perspectives in the global arts
community. Yearly our Community Events reach over 1,000
youth and community members!
|
