Daisy Garcia Montoya
Daisy Garcia Montoya
Education Reporter
Local nonprofit organization Art as Mentorship is getting ready for its annual Celebrate AMERI’KANA festival.
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 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.
The 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.
Taking place in the heart of the Northeast community, festival organizers speak on the importance of engaging with the diverse community and making the festival accessible to those in the Northeast by bringing the festival right to their neighborhood.
Festival Manager Juliana Chi shared that with this year’s theme “Immigrants are beautiful,” it is a reminder that this festival is a celebration of the diverse community.
“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,” Chi said.
The free festival will be hosted from 12 to 8 p.m. on Saturday, July 26 at Concourse Park, 200 Benton Blvd. The festival will include music, food trucks, a Mercado (market) with local vendors and soccer.
The music lineup will include the students involved with Art as Mentorship through its Rebel Song Academy as well as Making Movies, La Lulu and The Salvation Choir, among others.
For more information on the festival or how to get involved, visit: https://amerikana.tv.
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