We are Cebo and Shinobu, a Black & Japanese interracial family with four daughters who are also dancers. We are seeking to raise funds to help with the creation of a Street Dance Studio in the NY area for the community to have a place to teach, learn and preserve the culture.
The Street Dance community brought us together, the culture fostered our love. That love helped us to create the Street Dance organization named Next Generation NYC. For more than 30 years we have been committed to supporting the culture. That support had us move our family to Japan in 2003 to help teach about the culture and the respect it should be shown and not just copied and appropriated. We teach about the history, the importance of listening to the music, feeling the music, and dancing to the music. We brought our students and teachers from Japan to NY so that they may experience the culture first hand. It was then we realized there was a deficit in the very culture we are fighting so hard to preserve. We decided to create a home for our culture in NY.
Why we need help:
After a long search, we finally found a space in West New York, NJ (Unfortunately NYC is way out of our budget). While finalizing our contract, we were told by the city that the building is not supposed to have two different business. Our original timeline for opening was set back 9 months because of this issue. In the meantime, and our costs have almost doubled due to supply shortages. We were not expecting this kind of set back. Even after we are open, we having very hard time.
We understand the pandemic has made times difficult for many people and we truly appreciate any donations you can provide.