A3C is looking for hip-hop heads about that action
The deadline is fast approaching to compete for $10,000 toward social justice initiatives
all it a cypher for social justice.
ne year ago, Malika Whitley was a young hopeful in the inaugural A3C Action pitch competition. After grabbing a mic and telling her story to a roomful of judges, she went on to use more than $5,000 in winnings to help fund her nonprofit ChopArt’s 2016 summer arts camp for 100 homeless Atlanta youth.
nother 2015 winner among 65 applicants, the Philadelphia-based Media in Neighborhoods Group (MING), put its second-place earnings of $2,500 toward programming that allows former prisoners and law enforcers to turn an insightful lens on one another — instead of guns — through the medium of film.
his year the winner could be you — if you have the vision, that is, to use art, music, and hip-hop culture as a vehicle to address issues of social justice. For the second year in a row, Atlanta’s homegrown hip-hop fest, A3C Festival & Conference, is seeking applicants from around the country, and inside the city, who are about that action. In partnership with the Center for Civic Innovation, the pitch competition will invite finalists to compete during A3C in October for more than $10,000 in cash and in-kind contributions.
ocial justice has been under a spotlight all year with the tension between police and communities of colors rising as more high-profile, and seemingly unjustified, killings have come to light. Atlanta’s not immune. For the third year in a row, the city ranks No. 1 in income inequality capital. While public policy plays a major role, the solutions tend to start with change agents working from the underground up.
??There has never been a social movement in history that has not had creative people engaged and involved,” as Rohit Malhotra, Founder and Executive Director of the Center for Civic Innovation, said last year. “Hip hop, especially, has a historic place in social change.”
strong>If you want to apply for the 2016 A3C Action pitch competition, the time is now. The application deadline is Sunday, July 24.
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?For more information, visit www.a3caction.org.