Grantee Spotlight: Black, Bold & Brilliant

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MRAC’s Grantee Spotlight is a new series to showcase the impact of MRAC’s funding across communities.

BLACK, BOLD & BRILLIANT

Disciplines: Holistic Communal Art    MRAC Grant Program: Arts Impact for Groups, 2022

A group photo of Black, Bold & Brilliant's Summer retreat & internship for Black youth to gather, explore, dream, do and reflect. Participants of varying ages are holding their mixed media art pieces and smiling.
Image Description: A group photo of Black, Bold & Brilliant’s Summer retreat & internship for Black youth to gather, explore, dream, do and reflect. Participants of varying ages are holding their mixed media art pieces and smiling. Photo by: Wisdom Mawusi

About This Grantee

Black, Bold & Brilliant is a North Minneapolis based non-profit organization that provides a holistic framework for communal determination by engaging, guiding, and empowering Black youth and families to find their purpose by utilizing arts, cultural education and activism to develop a healthy, loving and thriving community.

Black, Bold & Brilliant engages and inspires Black youth with positive, affirming, informative and creative programming to build self-esteem and collective cultural consciousness. They cultivate compassionate leaders and artists that will help shape the community that we deserve in North Minneapolis and the larger metro in Minnesota. Black, Bold & Brilliant demonstrates an appreciation for the brilliance and time of Black youth by providing stipends and incentives to the youth they serve.

A group of Black youth stand outside on top of green grass and in front a brick wall. They are in a dance formation and are wearing matching maroon or black shirts with their right fists raised up to the air.
Image Description: A group of Black youth stand outside on top of green grass and in front a brick wall. They are in a dance formation and are wearing matching maroon or black shirts with their right fists raised up to the air. Photo by Wisdom Mawusi.

Impact Statement

“Support by MRAC has been instrumental in enabling Black, Bold, & Brilliant to offer our incredible opportunities to our community. Grants from MRAC have sustained our work and we are so appreciative of this partnership. Through funding from MRAC we have been able to cover the cost of materials and labor for producing high-quality programming and events that foster intergenerational connection, reflection, artistic expression and youth empowerment. Art is at the core of what we do at Black, Bold & Brilliant, which is to say healing is at the core of what we do. The exploration of art-making connects us to our highest selves. Art cultivates self-esteem and healing through expression. It is a journey where we can discover ourselves and our desires. It is a central part of Black and African Diasporic culture and history. It affirms a positive sense of self-worth and Black identity.

With support from MRAC we facilitate workshops on visual arts such as painting and collage. We have employed brilliant Black local artists to lead those workshops. Youth can see themselves in those artists and what is possible for them. We host workshops on writing, poetry, spoken word and music, where our community members have an opportunity to develop and share their thoughts artistically. What they produce is inspiring and so cyclical in how our community feeds each other  through the medium of art making. We hold incredible movement workshops featuring dance, step and even yoga. We work with artists to develop multi-media performances to illustrate and honor Black history and culture. Our work supports and affirms young and mature community members and Black artists from culinary artists to musicians. Some of our annual programs include our Black, Bold, & Brilliant Dr. MLK Black Youth Talent showcase, Black history workshops that connect history, story-telling and the arts, Juneteenth workshops, Black Youth Summer retreat and Internship.

Image Description: A Black youth in a black flannel shirt and black baseball cap sits at table holding a pair of scissors with collage materials scattered about the table during a Black, Bold & Brilliant collage workshop. Photo by Wisdom Mawusi

MRAC grants make it possible to incentivize Black youth through honorariums or stipends to think critically, create artistically, collaborate and get involved in community healing. Black, Bold, & Brilliant defines Black as Brilliant, creative, loving, inventive, resourceful, engaging, active, connected, joyful, compassionate and united. This is critical education to cultivate young leaders who are proud of their history and believe in their present ability to shape a brighter future. At Black, Bold & Brilliant we affirm all the beauty, ingenuity and brilliance of Blackness and dispel myths of inferiority through concrete examples in history and the present.”

–  Wisdom Mawusi, Founder and Director

Stay Connected

MRAC’s Grantee Spotlight is a new series to showcase the impact of MRAC’s funding across communities.

Stay connected with this month’s grantee: Black, Bold & Brilliant

Social Media

IG: @bbbfutures

#Blackboldandbrilliant  #bbbfutures #blackboldandbrilliant!

Upcoming events

Black, Bold and Brilliant Black Youth Retreat & Internship June 2024. Visit their  website for more information: blackboldandbrilliant.org

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