The Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute’s For The Culture 2024 Youth Summer Program has come to a close. Our students kicked off four weeks of culture-based learning on Tuesday, July 9th. The 13 students who comprised this year’s cohort engaged in art-making and community-centered exercises that drew from the teachings of our ancestors of the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s.

“The Harlem Ancestral Renaissance Project is an Afro-futuristic vessel through which youth arts activists are able to manifest their self-efficacy, self-determination, and collective enterprise - giving birth to a renewed self. From this process, they emerge with heightened emotional intelligence, socially aware, and unable to be categorized, while standing independently strong - rooted in community and ancestry. It is without a doubt that I believe we will not only meet but exceed all mission expectations to connect the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, to the cultural renaissance we are currently experiencing and facilitation,” said Tamara Thomas, For the Culture Co-Lead.

Led by teaching artists Jordan Martins and Tamara Thomas, the program was designed to focus on themes of self-empowerment through the lens of Renaissance pioneers. As such, this cohort experienced the exhibition, The Harlem Renaissance and Transatlantic Modernism at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET). With over 160 pieces of work, students explored paintings, sculptures, photography and film portraying everyday modern life for Black Americans. Our youth artivists reflected on their knowledge and were challenged to engage with the exhibit by creating art of their own.

To culminate the program in August, our creatives organized a multidisciplinary final showcase inspired by 1920s Harlem speakeasies. Alongside the displays of the art they created throughout the past four weeks, the collective showcased their artistic expression through dance, poetry and music representing the many art forms and the profound legacy of the Harlem Renaissance. With their families in attendance, they encouraged the community to share in an impromptu open mic as well as a group dance class. The lively energy from this year’s cohort radiated throughout the Tato Laviera Theater in Taino Towers with friendships that will far surpass the program.

The For The Culture: Harlem Ancestral Renaissance Project youth program focuses on teaching New York City teens the blueprint that already exists to preserve the impact of the African Diaspora by highlighting the Harlem Renaissance as the celebratory act of resistance that lifted the intellectual, artistic, and cultural contributions of African Descendants of that time.

CCCADI designed this summer program to support youth in navigating and contributing to conversations about race, racism, and anti-Black violence, to develop future leaders in social justice and cultural equity, and to create bridges between art, culture, & social justice.

For the first time, For the Culture has collaborated with the New York City Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP). The SYEP students made up half of this year’s For the Culture cohort as they utilized the opportunity to explore their personal and career interests.

Part of the program’s design is to offer students an opportunity to enhance their awareness of the role that out ancestors played in developing today’s Black and Brown community, develop responses to the need to temper resistance to racial and social injustice with personal and community wellness, and an understanding of the power of collective and collaborative effort.

“This is an opportunity to lead out young Black and Brown community of Harlem on a transformative journey, sharpening their artistic skills. By reaching back to the experiences of our ancestors, they are able to see the resilience and unity of our people to enact poignant social change. They are the legacy of the great work we do at CCCADI,” said Sabine Blaizin, CCCADI Director of Programs.