Founder & Art Director — OKA
Orange Korner Arts
CREATIVE SPACE FOR YOUTH AND FAMILIES IN NORTH PHILADELPHIA
2006-2014 - Philadelphia, PA
I created OKA in 2006 in collaboration with Ayuda Community Center as a response to a lack of programing for teens living in the Hunting Park neighborhood in north Philadelphia. Orange Korner Arts (OKA) is a community based arts program which provides therapeutic creative experiences for both youth and adults. Our programs consisted of afterschool art courses for teens, biannual youth art exhibitions, monthly Adult Art Workshops, and our OAKS of OKA Summer Teen Camp which enabled the youth to design and create large public art installations in our neighborhood each summer.
Serving as Art Director at OKA was one of the greatest privileges of my life. My years at OKA taught me the power of the arts to generate kinship and healing among us as humans. The youth that I was privileged to be in relationship with through OKA have shaped who I am today as an artist, as a teacher, and as one who offers hope to others with conviction.
Below is a trailer for our 5-year celebratory documentary created by Tim Fryett. Watch the full documentary (parts 1-6) here.
OUR MISSION: OKA cultivates safe space for youth and their families in north Philadelphia to explore their artistic abilities and spiritual calling enabling them to initiate positive change in their own communities.
OUR VISION: OKA’s vision is to see youth and families in North Philadelphia and the broader community awake to their call to hope, to belong, and to powerfully stimulate renewal in their own spheres of influence.
OUR HOPE: "I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe." Ephesians 1:18-19
