This past year I've been hosting Anthony Lee and a start up project called Art & Justice League. Over the years Anthony has become a good friend. AJL has been an idea in incubation for many years and 2010 was formidable in making this dream a reality. It's been great to dream with Anthony and pray with him through this process. I'm excited as we put dreams into action this year!
Art and Justice League exists to facilitate healing and empowerment for children affected by poverty and social injustice through creative development (Art) and advocacy (Justice).
For years Anthony has played out some of his dreams at Youth With A Mission, visiting refugee camps in Thailand, safe homes in Cambodia, and youth outreaches in the slums of Rio, and now he is taking on a more focused role with the formation of this organization, AJL. So in 2011, the paper work is done and things are in place. This year I will be working with Anthony to develop programming and a campaign to reach people with the mission of Art & Justice: Empowering children through creative development! www.ArtandJustice.org
Anthony and I began serving together many years ago through an event called Riot Poem. This was a vision to print and sell t-shirts to give to causes working on behalf of children suffering from sever poverty and injustice. At the time I was running a ministry called ONE Denver and it was a natural partnership to work towards mobilizing the church around this vision. We hosted two great events together raising awareness and money for the abolitionist movement, Love 146. Today, four years later, we have relaunched Riot Poem! It was only appropriate that we kick off years of deliberating, praying, and planning for Art & Justice League with a movement making event like Riot Poem.
Riot Poem is now the movement making arm of Art & Justice League (AJL). It's function is to invite people to participate in the mission of AJL. This will look like events "Riot Poem Events" and apparel "Riot Poem Apparel". Through the movement of combining activism (Riot) and artists (Poem) we are leveraging those that care to take action towards social change and with creative energy! This is a great opportunity to leverage artists work through an apparel line that would connect people to the mission of AJL. So if all goes well you will be hearing more about Riot Poem events and apparel, as AJL takes shape.
