Kuumba Lynx

Kuumba Lynx seeks to provide access to programs that preserve, promote and present urban arts & culture. It focuses on empowerment, health and creative literacy. Kuumba Lynx seeks to empower youth and their communities by employing Hip-Hop culture as both an art form & vehicle for intergenerational and cross-cultural dialogue. It aspires to help develop healthy hearts, minds, and bodies so that strong community foundations can thrive. The organization is also dedicated to providing programs for creative expression and literacy for Chicago’s youth and their families so as to increase social consciousness and enhance self-reflection, global action, inner peace and universal freedom. Kuumba Lynx runs drop-in arts residencies for youth in cultural dance, spoken word, music and graffiti arts. It also encapsulates performance groups such as Kuumba Lynx Performance Ensemble (KLPE), Footworkz, and Half-Pint Performance Poetry group for children. It also incorporates environmental arts and social/eco-education programs that emphasize social equity, green literacy and appreciation for life and the earth. A recent grant is supporting the production of the organization's first CD “Braid Tales,” which will be used to initiate dialogue about social and economic issues that affect inner city youth.