Help The Jakmel Ekspresyon Community Arts Center

The Jakmel Ekspresyon Community Arts Center

Chicago, Illinois

Cause Description:
The Jakmel Ekspresyon Community Arts Center (JE), is an organization that provides local artists with space and facilities to create and explore different mediums of artistic expression in a safe and non-discriminating environment. Haiti can be a harsh environment for those on the margins of society, including people with physical handicaps in the wake of the earthquake, women and those who identify as gay, gender ambiguous or homosexual. People from these groups in Haiti can often become the focus of persecution. JE provides a safe harbor for disenfranchised in Haitians, as well as helping to provide them paths to self-sufficiency. The Center offers membership to local artists and workshops to the public. The workshops are lead by local and international artists and focus not only in areas of artistic skills but professionalism and health. We believe that the members must be empowered to live a healthy life in order for JE to become a true incubator of social change from the local level. These workshops broaden the participant’s skill sets giving them invaluable business acumen, to often missing in Haitian culture. With this training, artists learn how to support themselves, their families and their communities.

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