Shakti Foundation for Arts and Culture

Shakti Foundation for Arts and Culture is a non-profit cultural arts advocacy organization based in Washington, DC. The mission of the organization is to 1. Use the arts as a vehicle for greater harmony and understanding between cultures, through innovatively pairing programmed cultural arts events with global social justice causes. 2. Develop new platforms and opportunities for cultural arts and artists, with a focus on arts from the Islamic world, to create greater understanding and reduce bias between the Muslim and non-Muslim worlds. 3. Facilitate non-violent communication between cultural groups and organizations. The organization currently serves the Washington, DC metropolitan region and New York City through local and regional event programming to develop linkages between the cultural arts and social justice causes. Through partnering with national and international non-profits, including Amnesty International and UNICEF, the organization coordinates live and online events to build diversity and inclusion in communities.

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Though only in existence since 2016, Shakti Foundation for Arts and Culture has already made major strides in creating a greater market in the USA for cultural arts and music from around the world, with its unique vision of producing events that bring cultures together rather than divide them. Its inaugural show "Sufi Music Around the World," which translates Sufi music and poetry from around the world, has managed to sell out venues in Washington, DC(Capital Fringe), New York(Center at West Park, DROM), and San Francisco(SF Live Arts at Cyprian's). Furthermore, Its newest initiative, Culture Project,  is a monthly open mic series that encourages diverse members of the community to share aspects of their culture with their broader communities. 

Shakti Foundation for Arts and Culture has an ambitious and practical vision of spreading cultural events to parts of the US with little access, including areas of Middle America, in order to help change mindsets around diversity in these communities. Thus, from 2018, the Culture Project is scheduled to tour venues in various cities of the USA, big and small, including: Lincoln, NE; Parkersburg, WV; Lewes, DE, and Midvale, UT. 

Our current partnerships are with Amnesty International, UNICEF, and the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Arts, through which we have programmed successful cultural arts events in several metropolitan cities and been able to raise significant awareness and funds for a variety of social justice initiatives globally.