Mission

Roots and Beats fosters positive youth development through bilingual media art education and cultural engagement. Our programs address the opportunity gap of underserved youth through culturally responsive, project- based education that encourages creative expression and the acquisition of employable skills. We merge tradition and technology to weave culturally-rooted digital storytelling through music and art that center indigenous and diaspora experiences.

What We Do

Our vision is one where all youth can become multimodal digital creators and communicators, prepared to excel in the 21st century in a way that elevates their cultural identity. Our work is informed by a belief that when young people feel safe expressing themselves creatively, embracing cultural diversity, and bonding with adult mentors, it unlocks great potential for the development of wide-ranging skills and competencies towards becoming future community leaders.

Our main three overarching programming goals:

-Foster awareness and exploration of cultural identity, art, and heritage embedded within an innovative technology- driven creative arts curriculum. We do this by offering integrative media arts workshops and fieldtrips with culturally relevant content that exposes youth to traditional arts and practices, which stimulate curiosity and inspiration for youth to produce creative works of their own.

-Provide access to educational media arts programming for Latinx/BIPOC youth who may otherwise lack such opportunities in underserved neighborhoods and communities. By partnering with culturally specific nonprofit organizations, and SUN Community School program sites we are more effectively able to offer our services within the communities we hope to serve.

-Expose underserved youth to inspirational community mentors and potential careers in arts, culture and creative technology fields. By collaborating with local Latinx/BIPOC working artists and local media arts resource centers in the implementation of our programming.