The mother of the late, great Tupac Amuru Shakur will unveil the long-awaited arts center dedicated to the memory of the hip hop emcee who died alomst 10 years ago, on June 11, 2005.
The Tupac Amaru Shakur Center for the Arts is the $4 million project started by Afeni Shakur that is focused on helping at-risk youth by getting them involved in the arts. The center sits on a six-acre campus in the Atlanta suburb of Stone Mountain and is reported to include an art gallery, rehearsal area, offices, gift shop and a "peace garden" which will feature a bronze statue of Tupac that will be unveiled in September. Afeni plans to add a museum, community meeting space and classrooms to the center in the future.
While fans often wondered where all the money went from Tupac's seven posthumous album, the fact is that the majority of the center's funding came from the foundation Afeni set up to receive proceeds from those releases, as well as the movies, DVDs and other projects Tupac released after his death.
While the foundation has sponsered a youth arts camps for 12- to 18-year-olds for several years, the center will be the permanent site for the program.
Tupac often spoke of the great experiences he had while enrolled at The Performing Arts School in Baltimore, Maryland. That foundation helped foster the creativity that grew out of the emcee/poet/activist/actor and Tupac's mom wants to foster the same creativity in other young people.
"Arts can save children, no matter what's going on in their homes," Afeni, 58, told The Associated Press in a recent interview. "I wasn't available to do the right things for my son. If not for the arts, my child would've been lost."
Afeni has devoted her life to keeping Tupac's memory alive and helping young people strive for excellence.
"I learned that I can't save the world, but I can help a child at a time," Afeni said, adding that it was all made possible by her son.
"God created a miracle with his spirit. I'm all right with that."
-TA
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