While students of Toledo Public Schools (TPS) often visit galleries at the Toledo Museum of Art during field trips, they rarely become part of the art on display. TPS high school students involved in a local arts education group, Radiant City Arts, will collaborate for an innovative performance of mixed media arts: Radiant Soles–100 Feet and Rising on Saturday, February 20. Celebrate art, creativity and hip-hop culture in conjunction with the TMA’s Sneaker Culture exhibit.
Creative radiance
Founded through the spirit of creative collaboration by visual artist Yusuf Lateef, musician Ben Cohen, and poet/educator Akili Jackson, Radiant City Arts is a Toledo-based collaboration of artists and art educators with eclectic backgrounds seeking to empower students and provide resources for creatives interested in an artistic career. “Knowing that within our community there is such a wealth of not only knowledge, information, and know-how, but also a wealth of untapped creativity,” says Jackson.
“I met Ben about ten years ago. We were [both] playing music and I was involved in a lot of mural making and collaborating with communities here in Toledo,” said Lateef. Over time, their mutual interest in community building led to Radiant City. “We started to discuss ideas [about] how to combine our individual artistic concepts to bring the work and our efforts together under one umbrella.” Poet/educator Akili Jackson joined Lateef and Cohen, furthering the diversity of the group. A history of creativity focused community building projects includes Run Across Congo, where they travelled to Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo to “create an album that helps raise awareness of the issues facing local communities.”
The February 20 performance will feature beats, lyrics, dance and visuals while encouraging students to critically assess their response to the TMA’s exhibit.
Sneaker Culture
Jackson says, “The focus of the project is to have people look at and understand how the culture within hip-hop effects how people make purchases,” he continues, “If you have that type of power, then that can be utilized to revitalize your own community.” The project is designed to engage “seeds of entrepreneurialism” within hip-hop culture. “Within creativity is power,” says Jackson, “You don’t have to purchase, you can create.” The project questions self perception and value and how one can participate in the creative marketplace. He describes how hip-hop music arose as a response the dissolution of public school music and art programs. Jackson says, “real hip-hop is about empowerment, it’s about using the empowerment of creativity to sustain one’s community.”
Community makers
According to Lateef, Radiant City focuses on “community engagement and finding ways for new creative avenues of expression and collaboration, primarily with youth, but we have worked with adults, too.”
Despite serving in organizational roles, Lateef, Cohen and Jackson are artists at the end of the day, bringing their passions for creation into the Radiant City program.
“As artists, we create our own work that represents our opinions and voices,” said Cohen. “But [Radiant City] is also thinking of art in a broader sense, like what it means to be a community member, or how to look at a sustainable career as an artist. Finding outlets for young artists to intern and connect with professional employers to get them work and to build a huge network of creative people in every medium.”
Lateef explains that the organization focuses on “creative programming and being able to connect different facilities together that are doing work and us being the creative glue. In this case we are the outreach bridge between Toledo Public Schools and the TMA. We’re the creative brokers.”
