Kerry, may you share a bit about your background and what impressed you to discovered the Younger City Arts Basis?
I used to be born into chaos at Holloway Jail, to a mom serving time. My father was deeply concerned in crime and my early years had been marked by instability, poverty and survival. I grew up in an atmosphere the place choices felt restricted and I noticed how straightforward it was to get caught in a cycle that appeared not possible to flee.
Music turned extra than simply an escape, it was a lifeline. It linked me to mentors, to individuals who genuinely cared and to a world past what I knew. With out these key influences, with out these individuals who noticed one thing in me earlier than I noticed it in myself, my story may have been very totally different.
I used to be at a crossroads. One the place the incorrect step may have taken me down a really totally different path. As a substitute, I used to be given a chance. There wasn’t a single defining second however a sequence of moments. Folks, music and experiences that guided me in the direction of one thing larger. A kind of was my time in New York, immersed in hip-hop tradition, battling, studying and seeing that there was extra on the market for me. That journey shifted my perspective, it made me realise that my voice had energy.
That’s why I based the Younger City Arts Basis (YUAF) as a result of I do know that entry to creativity, mentorship and alternative can change lives. I needed to create the sort of help system I by no means had rising up. An area the place younger folks really feel seen, heard and empowered. By our Studio Bus, we convey creativity straight into communities, providing younger folks a technique to specific themselves, heal and construct self-belief.
For me, music was by no means nearly sound, it was about survival, transformation and rewriting my story. Now, by way of YUAF, I’m serving to the subsequent era rewrite theirs.
