KUUMBA Academy
Instagram: @KuumbaAcademy
Facebook: @KuumbaAcademyNC
Key Personnel:
Founder: Jermaine Nakia Lee
Contact: Email: jermainenakialee@gmail.com
ABOUT:
Founded by Jermaine Nakia Lee, KUUMBA Academy is an 18-month creative fellowship offering artistic and professional development for visual, literary, and performing artists of color in the Charlotte area. The tuition-free program focuses on developing skills such as media relations, grant writing, social media, marketing, promotion, production, and collaboration. Lee was awarded a 2022 ASC Cultural Vision Grant to support the project, which is also funded by the Knight Foundation.
Lee, a multidisciplinary artist, is also a co-founder of Charlotte Black Pride and Poor No More and serves as the Education Director for BNS Productions. In 2015, he received the city of Charlotte’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Medallion Award for Community Service and Achievement in the Arts and in 2022 was named Q Notes Carolinas’ Person of the Year.
MEDIA COVERAGE:
Pride and Joy- UNC Charlotte Features
Person of the year: Jermaine Nakia Lee- Qnotes Carolina
Poor No More offers essentials to Charlotte under-resourced citizens- WSOC-TV
