Advancing Justice through Creative Expressions
-GOALS-
I.
Develop a creative organizing model that helps remove the walls of hostility (racism, classism, and -isms) that separates and destroys communities.
II.
Educate and mobilize the younger generation in the area of public policy in order to effect change in our community.
III.
Help historically disenfranchised communities build authentic and true power.
IV.
Help the younger generation build power and engage power positively and constructively rather than in destructive ways.
V.
Inspire and encourage artists to create art that uplifts our culture and society.
VI.
Placing a higher value on artists' creations by creating economic structures that produce compensation for starving artists.
- LEADERSHIP -
Pastor Stephen Cue Jn-Marie founded The Shaw Community Transformation Corporation dba Creating Justice LA (CJLA) 20 years ago because he saw a void on Skid Row. A hip hop artist originally, he left the music industry in 1994 to found The Row Church aka “The Church Without Walls” on the streets of Skid Row. Every Friday for the last 17 years, The Row Church has faithfully held service and fed those who were hungry for food and the word of God. Through his work founding The Row Church, Pastor Cue recognized the need for economic systems that were not based on capitalism, because he saw what capitalism was doing to people on Skid Row – people outside the economic, experiential, cultural bubbles of traditional advancement. In response, Pastor Cue founded CJLA, an organization advancing justice through creative expressions, and The Hip Hop Smoothie Shop, a cultural health innovation space & social enterprise focused on economically empowering Skid Row & forgotten communities.
Led by Development/Artistic Director Kayo Anderson, The Creating Justice Artivist Village is an upcoming collective of Skid Row artists born out of Creating Justice LA and the Peace & Healing Center. This group of multidisciplinary artists and activists will be presenting groundbreaking community led visual and performing art across LA County and regularly meet in & out of the center.
CJLA Directors Pastor Cue and Kayo have both experienced houselessness, including on Skid Row. This personal experience was eye opening, to say the least. As artists whose work is rooted in socioeconomic justice, they are flipping the narrative on houselessness from the worst time of someone’s life to a time of growth and transformation. This is realized through various programs, most notably the recent Peace and Healing Center located in Skid Row. CJLA and Pastor Cue are at the center of organizing community to affect structural change. From labor to housing and the many intersections, the impact of CJLA reaches across material and spiritual nourishment to connect, re-vitalize, and engage people across LA County.
- Collaborators-
- With support from -
