Kuumba Lynx

Founded in ‘96 by three Chicago womyn, Kuumba Lynx (KL) is a Hip Hop collective committed to brave spaces that inspire wellness through creative art making. KL challenges youth and their communities to deeply engage & listen, critically observe and react, and creatively speak with one another. KL presents, promotes, and preserves arts, culture and whole body wellness and as a tool to reimagine and demonstrate a more just world. Kuumba Lynx’s continuum of art & culture making opportunities, and community engagement activities is a palette for growing our whole selves.

For 28 years, KL, alongside many of Chicago’s artists, activists, healers, educators, and youth communities, has honed WE GET FREE. The pedagogy encompasses liberatory practices rooted in wellness, collective healing, and art making. and dedicated to strengthening our social & cultural capital through exposure to people, places and opportunities, acquisition of empowering education, arts making & community building skills. KL does the work of cross-cultural understanding, creative expression & critical dialogue through an exploration of one's identity & culture. KL utilizes the healing elements of Hip Hop, coupled with empowering performances, showcases, open stages, & exhibitions, film screenings, pedagogical workshops, cultural events, publications, and various healing art modalities (mindfulness, talk therapy, yoga, reiki, acupuncture, body work, movement, etc.) as catalysts for youth and Hip Hop generation adults to build community and strengthen their future. The KL mission is achieved through a continuum of arts and wellness initiatives.

Kuumba Lynx focuses on counterculture ideologies, artistic excellence, and the promotion of positive Hip Hop art and culture. We foster voice, self-confidence, critical dialogue, liberatory world view, joy, and notions of equity and justice inspiring art as a means toward creative expression for liberation.

KL believes in developing healthy hearts, minds, and bodies that will in turn create strong, community foundations of love.