USING THE PAST AS A BLUEPRINT TO EMPOWER THE FUTURE OF OUR DIASPORA
In a time where our culture continues to be appropriated and erasure is on the rise, we look to youth throughout New York City to highlight and preserve the impact of the African Diaspora through CCCADI’s Youth Pathways 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.
Throughout the academic year, we offered more than 50 young women cultural enrichment and empowerment through intergenerational mentoring, exchange and professional development opportunities. The Sankofa Young Women’s Leadership Program provided two cohorts with educational and interactive after-school workshops on the connections of Hip-Hop, Storytelling, and African Oral Traditions. The students of each cohort participated in master classes, peer education, and received guidance on project presentations over the course of eight weeks.
Hip-Hop legend Roxanne Shanté served as the keynote speaker, offering words of wisdom to our youth.
Continuing our youth arts education programming, this summer, CCCADI’s For The Culture program returns. Themed the Harlem Ancestral Renaissance Project, the July 2023 session welcomes NYC youth, ages 14-18 in high school, to take part in master classes, community and intergenerational exchange, and art-making centered in learning from the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s. For the Culture: HARP focuses on showing youth the Harlem Renaissance as a blueprint for the celebratory act of resistance that lifts up the intellectual, artistic, and cultural contributions of African Descendants.
The July session has accepted 20 students to take part in a two-week in-person intensive beginning July 10 and culminating on July 22.
The Sankofa Young Women’s Leadership Program was made possible by funding from The Pinkerton Foundation, GrantMakers for Girls of Color, and Warner Music Group/Blavatnik Family Foundation Social Justice Fund.
