Organized by Tene Traylor, program officer, Community Foundation of Greater Atlanta.
Founded in 1997 by Afeni Shakur, mother of the multi-talented Tupac Shakur, the Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation works to bring quality arts training to our young people. A broad range of training is offered via the Annual Performing Arts Day Camp held at the Tupac Amaru Shakur Center for the Arts. Disciplines include creative writing, vocal technique, acting, stage set design, dance, poetry & spoken word, and the business of entertainment. The Performing Arts Day Camp is open to students ages 12-18. The Foundation is currently working to create and preserve an institution for Hip-Hop & Urban Culture at the Tupac Amaru Shakur Center for the Arts.
Tupac accomplished a lot during the span of his life. At an early age, he wrote and organized family productions, casting himself as the lead and his older cousins in supporting roles. Tupac formally trained at the 127th Street Ensemble and Baltimore School for the Arts. At the age of twelve, Tupac experienced his first formal stage role as the character “Travis” in the stage play Raisin In the Sun. The play was performed at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem. Tupac was eventually cast in several feature films and recorded several chart-topping albums. In fact, he released the first-ever double hip-hop CD and remains the top selling Hip-Hop artist of all time.