Waukegan B.A.M.M. group celebrates 20 years of helping community, students

WAUKEGAN – A grassroots organization dedicated to addressing social justice and human rights issues in Lake County will celebrate its 20th anniversary next month.

Black Abolition Movement for the Mind (B.A.M.M.) will celebrate with a Kemetic Soul Poetry and Fashion Show at 7 p.m. April 3 at the Puerto Rican Society, 150 S. Sheridan Road, Waukegan. The event will feature entertainment (both spoken word and musical), food and, of course, a fashion show.

“We want [people] to… learn more about our organization,” said Chris “Brotha” Blanks, founding president. Blanks is the grandson of the late Rev. H.D. Darby, a minister who filed the first lawsuit in Mississippi in 1958 for African-Americans to vote.

B.A.M.M. is a nonprofit organization with a goal to provide community programs that speak to literacy and violence prevention. It also seeks to ensure and promote self-worth, value, love, pride, dignity, respect, and knowledge of self and of the "Most High," through poetry and the arts, while standing for justice, equality and liberation, according to www.bam4themind.com.

“I feel [our organization] is important because our community – people of color, Hispanics and those sympathetic to our cause – need an organization that works in their best interest," Blanks said.

The organization is always looking for volunteers to help it achieve its missions.

“All they really have to do is have a genuine desire to see the community and youth of the community in the best light,” Blanks said.

B.A.M.M. hosts events, such as open mic and poetry nights, conscious nights at the movie and more, as finances allow. Members meet at 7 p.m. on Thursdays at headquarters, 801 McAlister Ave., Waukegan. Events focus on social justice and art.

“We are the organization that actually pioneered the renaissance or re-emergence of poetry in the community,” Blanks said.

Among B.A.M.M. offerings is a mentoring and consulting program with North Chicago High School. Members of B.A.M.M. work with students at risk of not graduating to help them find themselves, as well as finding the path to graduation and beyond through an after-school poetry program and book club. Blanks said B.A.M.M. programs often give students self-confidence and self-esteem.

“In the future, we look at doing more of what we’re already doing, but on a larger scale to touch a broader base of minds,” Blanks said, adding the goal is to help young people identify the greatness they come from and help them achieve the greatness they aspire to.

Visit www.bam4themind.com to learn more about B.A.M.M. programs.

If you go:

Kemetic Soul Poetry and Fashion Show

When: 7 p.m. April 3

Where: Puerto Rican Society, 150 S. Sheridan Road, Waukegan

Cost: Tickets are $35 in advance or $45 at the door.

Info: Tickets can be purchased at B.A.M.M. headquarters, 801 McAlister Ave., Waukegan. Call
773-510-1713 for more information.