Freedom takes creativity.
And a place to grow.
We liberate creativity so people who want to be free can define freedom for themselves, their communities, and their world.
We were the art
we wanted to see.
That is why we began as Living Art. We see art in how we learn, how we relate, how we organize, and what we make together. A life can be a work of art. So can a community.
Creative Liberation Practice™ carries that conviction into performance, education, and culture-making.
The Practice of Living Art
Breath, attention, voice, and movement: bringing the artist’s practice into everyday life.
Performance Literature Workshops
Making meaning through text and performance, from youth workshops to professional learning.
The Uhuru Institute
Our vision of the un-school: a place for whole human beings to learn by creating.
Cultural Transformation
Original works and creative inquiry that question inherited narratives and make room for other possibilities.
Give the work
ground to build on.
Our first need is reliable funding for the Foundation itself. Recurring gifts help cover the cost of keeping the work going. A founding gift can also help establish the first reserve for the Power Reclamation Fund.
Your support helps build TUAF’s operating capacity, develop the Seshet Juris-Consortium, and establish the Power Reclamation Fund’s founding reserve for Black women and girls.
Year-end campaign goal
Founding Circle places
One for each year of our history
2026 campaign close
The ground. The capacity.
The possibility.
A foundation
that can carry the work.
Reliable bookkeeping, insurance, registrations, and the systems that support responsible stewardship. Recurring gifts help give the work continuity.
The Power
Reclamation Fund
Capital and institutional architecture for Black women and Black girls. This campaign builds the reserve toward a first cohort, with program delivery tied to funding and readiness milestones.
The Seshet
Juris-Consortium
An initiative exploring legal education, community self-advocacy, and approaches to resolving conflict grounded in truth, balance, reciprocity, and collective responsibility.
There is more than
one way to stand with us.
Become a
recurring supporter.
Ankh · Threshold Circle · $10/month
Djed · Pillar Circle · $25/month
Torus · Field Circle · $84/month or $1,000/year
Seed of Life · Community Circle · $167/month or $2,000/year
Choose general support, the Power Reclamation Fund, or the Seshet Juris-Consortium.
Choose your circle ↗Join the
Founding Circle.
Twenty-one Founding Circle places. A gift of $1,000–$5,000 by December 31, 2026.
Choose at checkout: half to operating ground and half to the Fund’s reserve, or direct the full gift to either purpose.
Make a founding gift ↗Give in a way
that fits your life.
A one-time gift. A conversation about giving through your donor-advised fund. An intention to include TUAF in your legacy.
Let’s find the appropriate route for your support.
Talk with us ↗Membership is a giving program and carries no vote in TUAF’s governance. Monthly and annual options have different annual totals. Choose your gift designation at checkout.
Twenty-one years.
Always becoming.
Founded in 2005 as Living Art, NFP, TUAF grows from a practice of making culture together: breath, text, voice, performance, and the possibility that opens when people create.
Living Art, NFP incorporates in Illinois on March 15. The Joy Arts Society takes shape that summer.
Performance Literature Workshops bring oratory, poetry, and performance into Chicago community and school settings, including the 2015 Hope Institute Learning Academy student showcase.
The work expands in Nashville, including programming through OZ Arts and writing and creativity workshops at Cheekwood.
The board approves the name The Uhuru Arts Foundation. Uhuru means freedom.
The founding campaign builds operating capacity and resources for new initiatives.
Know what
you are helping build.
What is ready now?
Gifts are welcome now. The public campaign runs November 23–December 31, 2026. The Power Reclamation Fund and the Seshet Juris-Consortium are in formation. This page does not announce open grant applications, participant enrollment, or legal representation.
What happens before the first Fund cohort?
TUAF first establishes its operating ground. The Fund’s reserve then needs to cover the first cohort’s full formation window before that cohort begins. We will report progress as milestones are reached.
What does membership include?
Ankh supporters receive the quarterly Uhuru letter and member convenings. Djed supporters also participate in the annual member circle advising Fund priorities. Torus supporters receive founders’ briefings twice a year; Seed of Life includes benefits for two.
How do I make a gift?
Visit Support the Work to choose a giving level and continue to Stripe’s secure checkout. Monthly and annual options recur at the interval selected.
Help the next chapter
take root.
Bring your conviction. Bring your questions.
There is a place for you in what comes next.