UPTOWN — Despite being over $10,000 short of their fundraising goal, the organizers of Kuumba Lynx aren't losing faith in their mission.
The group hopes to raise $15,000 to support one of their newest projects, the We Get Free Media Crew, but so far have only raised about $2,000 for the project. The group has a little over two weeks to reach the goal.
"We're not really worried. We're thinking positive and we have something to put some fire under it before the campaign ends," said Jaquanda Villegas, a co-founding director of Kuumba Lynx, an arts education and youth development organization at 4501 N. Clarendon Ave. in Uptown. "As long as we continue to push it we should be good, but we have to kick it in high gear."
Check out their explanation of the project below:
The We Get Free Media Crew has been documenting Chicago's hip hop art, culture and resistance for the past three years. The artist involved in the crew range from ages 8-26, according to the fundraising website.
"Their works include documentation of local youth programs rooted in a critical pedagogy, interviews w/ academics, activists, and artists, annual events such as louder than a bomb and brave new voices poetry competitions; road trips; transitional leadership building; youth led social movements; intergenerational learning and liberation," the website said.
"Our whole mission is around changing the Chi-raq narrative. There's a lot of youth in Chicago doing amazing work. We're documenting what we're doing to live in our community as opposed to how we're destroying our community," Villegas said. "We're capturing that by interviewing young folks who have a voice in it."
The group will be screening some of their work around the city that normally don't see their work hoping to enlighten them of their mission and hopefully get more support for the group, Villegas said.
Jacinda Bullie, co-director of Kuumba Lynx, said the campaign started a few weeks ago and "is really about bringing support to the youth media program. Their goal really is to be the first to report on their own life experiences."
From 8-9:30 p.m., the group will host a screening of their documentation, which includes cover of police torture, protest involving the youth and the Rekia Boyd trial at DePaul University, at 2320 N. Kenmore Thursday.
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