The African Heritage Cultural Arts Center has been one of the most important cultural institutions in the Liberty City area of Miami, Florida for decades. Thousands of children's lives have been changed been changed because of their expose to the arts. The center provides, a place for kids to explore their artistic abilities, strengthen communication skills, master multi-tasking, and build life long friendships.
The Cultural Arts Center has been more than an arts camp or after school program for everyone in the community. Remnants of its powerfully positive impact can be seen all across the country in its students who have gone further in life than statistics would have allowed them to. We have risen above societal limits and are breaking stratification barriers one at a time. And many of our successes are in someway a result of life changing experiences we had there.
But like many other organizations, companies, and government institutions, The African Heritage Cultural Arts Center is in jeopardy because of the unstable economy. The Miami-Dade County Board of County Commission has been charged with the task of cutting millions of dollars from the budget this year and all Parks and Recreations centers are on the chopping block.
Please understand that the few dollars that are taken from the Cultural Arts Center will not help Miami-Dade county in any way. It will only lead to a lack of positive activities for our youth and perpetuate the stagnated cycles that have kept the African American community down for so long.
If the Cultural Arts Center is shut down, by the year 2020, there will be less young performers from Miami on Broadway. There will be less Miami native and jazz vocalist and classical musicians on European tours. There will be less photographers and painters from Miami earning scholarships at universities with top arts programs.
Instead there will be more misguided youths in the streets, more spray painting on buildings, more emotionally troubled kids, more class clowns, and the county public schools' test scores will dramatically decrease even further.
Is this what we want for the following generations?
