BUILDING LEADERSHIP AMONG YOUNG WOMEN THROUGH CONNECTIONS BETWEEN AFRICAN DIASPORIC ORAL TRADITIONS AND HIP-HOP
The Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute launches its inaugural cohort of the Sankofa Young Women’s Leadership Program, an in-person after-school arts and culture workshop series that supports young Black and Brown women of New York City, ages 14-18.
The launch of this new arts education series, a function of CCCADI’s Youth Pathways program, comes as a result of major support in the form of more than $135K in grant awards from The Pinkerton Foundation, GrantMakers for Girls of Color, and Warner Music Group/Blavatnik Family Foundation Social Justice Fund.
Held weekly from February 8 - April 5, 2023 on Wednesdays between 3:30 - 5:30 p.m. at the CCCADI Firehouse location on 125th Street in East Harlem, CCCADI’s Sankofa Young Women’s Leadership Program begins with a cohort of more than 40 young Black and Brown women who will experience eight weeks of cultural enrichment and empowerment through intergenerational mentoring, international exchange, and professional development opportunities.
In African descendent communities, women traditionally served as the culture bearers of the community. From women, often elders, one would learn the stories and traditions that were passed on from generation to generation with young girls sitting and absorbing the leadership principles being enunciated within the talking circle. Historically, conquerors intuitively knew that taking away a people’s culture was the best way to enforce domination over a people. Thus, removing one’s religion, one’s name, one’s language, one’s food, one’s children and more served to kill the spirit within.
CCCADI’s Sankofa Young Women’s Leadership Program is designed to spiritually take its young participants back to the motherland, Africa, through the exploration of the art of Diasporic storytelling and the connectivity between that art form and modern Hip Hop. Through workshops led by an all-women faculty of expert facilitators, participants will reclaim and even transform the loss of cultural values caused by and exacerbated by enslavement/colonialism that was followed by centuries of systemic racism and discrimination.
In alignment with the 50th anniversary of Hip Hop, the program is designed for participants to explore storytelling and literature with Latanya Devaughn of Bronx Bound Books, preserving oral histories with Erica Harper of Weeksville Heritage Center, the four elements of Hip Hop with Porshia Derival of H+, beat-boxing and spoken word with Zaria Poem, creating protest art as storytelling with Michele Byrd-Mcphee of Ladies of Hip Hop, discuss Africanist Aesthetic in Hip Hop with Imani Kai Johnson and Big Tara, explore self-identity narratives with Janeen Ettienne of Urban Design League and experience a field trip to the Universal Hip Hop Museum. The young women of this inaugural cohort will also have the opportunity to dive into the elements of Hip Hop with Rokafella, Patty Dukes, Erotica67, DJ Monday Blue at CCCADI’s March 11th Sou Sou! Saturdays: In the Footsteps of Hip Hop’s Femme Pioneers.
Cohort I culminates with participant presentations on April 5th. Cohort II begins on April 19 - June 7, 2023. To register, click below.
ABOUT YOUTH PATHWAYS
The Sankofa Young Women’s Leadership Program is part of CCCADI’s Youth Pathways. An arts education program, Youth Pathways is designed to provide Black and Brown youth with space and opportunity to experience active community engagement and advocacy, cultural empowerment and enrichment, and a connection to a larger global movement. The youth are leaders of our Diasporic community and we seek to amplify their voices and vision for meaningful and impactful social change.
