Daisy Garcia Montoya
Daisy Garcia Montoya
Education Reporter
Celebrate AMERI’KANA, a music and arts festival organized by Art as Mentorship, returned to the Northeast for its annual one-day event on Saturday, July 26 at Concourse Park (200 Benton Blvd.)
Art as Mentorship, founded in 2017 by Enrique Chi — lead guitarist and vocalist for the Latin GRAMMY-nominated, Kansas City-based band Making Movies — is an organization that engages with under-represented youth through music in the Historic Northeast.
Youth involved with Art as Mentorship have the opportunity to learn about music production and create original music as a way to express themselves, share personal experiences and continue to be in tune with their roots.
This festival serves as an extension of Art as Mentorship as a fundraising mechanism for the nonprofit as well as a “graduation” where artists involved in the nonprofit’s programming have an opportunity to perform as well.
During festival preparation, the organization was informed that national funding for the festival was canceled, just a few months prior to the event date. The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), which had granted $85,000 in funding — with $20,000 allotted to Celebrate AMERI’KANA — to Art as Mentorship, rescinded this grant, leaving organizers seeking an alternative solution. In addition to the federal funding loss, Art as Mentorship was also impacted by budget cuts made by Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe. As part of the nearly $35 million cuts in funding for Kansas City programs, Art as Mentorship saw its projected $198,000 funds vetoed for 2025.
As a result, the organization leaned in on community support and donors to come up with the total needed for the festival, with $12,000 raised in matching funds. Additionally, community sponsorships from organizations such as the Museum of Kansas City, Jerusalem Farm and Latinx Education Collaborative contributed to the cause.
“They’re also nonprofits, have budget issues and complex challenges and this festival isn’t in the area of work they do so the fact that they stepped up to help us get to the finish line and because they believe in this neighborhood,” Enrique Chi said.
Although AMERI’KANA took place as expected on Saturday, July 26, Associate Producer and Community Engagement Coordinator Juliana Chi mentioned that strategic changes had to be made to make up for the budget changes. A new focus on VIP tickets sales, reducing the music lineup and community partnerships were all actions taken to facilitate the ongoing festival planning.
This free, family-friendly festival included musical performances, food trucks and a Mercado (market) with local vendors and pickup soccer available for children. The music lineup included students from the Rebel Song Academy (part of Art as Mentorship programming), Making Movies, La Lulu and The Salvation Choir, among others.
With a mission to highlight the music and artistic contributions of Black, Indigenous and people of color as well as hosting the festival to the community it serves, Juliana Chi shared the importance of engaging the Northeast community and ensuring event accessibility.
“This is where the event is going to live, we want it in this neighborhood. We have always wanted this festival to be for the BIPOC community of Kansas City and within the arts,” Juliana Chi said. Before the festival came to Concourse Park, the festival had been held in other music venues around the city. Due to factors such as lack of transportation, resources, language barriers, oftentimes the community members would not attend which led to bringing the ‘the festival to them’ by hosting it at Concourse Park.
This year’s theme, “Immigrants are beautiful,” Juliana Chi shared is a reminder that this festival is a celebration of the diverse community and cultures in the Historic Northeast.
“With everything that is going on, it felt very heavy and more poignant than ever that we needed to make this festival, it’s always been a celebration of that community so we decided to make that the theme,” Juliana Chi said. “It’s a celebration of these cultures that exist here in Kansas City and the stories of immigrants and the Black community in the arts that has influenced American music as we know it today and highlighting them.”
With many musicians from Kansas City who have gone to work with big names, Enrique Chi wants AMERI’KANA to continue to be a tribute and reminder to the Kansas City community of its homegrown talents.
“We’re trying to build that bridge to show that it’s possible to build a life around these musical talents and this artistic expression and be successful while being from here and I think it’s a great example for our youth to realize ‘Hey, if you put the right work, take some risks and are brave, you can build a life out of the stuff you want.’”
Beyond the festival, Enrique Chi emphasized the importance of working together and the opportunities that exist when communities rally and support each other.
“If you’re reading this and you’re like ‘Woah, that’s crazy money they lost, how could I ever contribute?’ That’s not true, everyone has something that they can contribute to making their environment better, their community better, even in what can seem like the littlest contribution, it can be incredibly huge,” Enrique Chi said. “You can just connect this to the right human being and that person might change and grow the whole thing.”
For more information on Art as Mentorship, AMERI’KANA or how to get involved visit: https://artasmentorship.org/amerikana/.
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