Introducing the BLK SHP Bus Tour
Seven cities, 15 days, 9 artists, entrepreneurs, and dreamers, and one Willie Nelson band tour bus. These are the numbers behind the unlikely partners the BLK SHP Foundation has assembled for its bus tour across America this May. But our goal is about much more than numbers, it’s about stories.
Our journey started three years ago, when a group of black sheep (BLK SHP) — creative people who have always stood apart from the crowd — boarded a band’s tour bus to visit cities across the country. The people they met changed their lives forever. In St. Louis, they met Danny McGinnist Jr., an incredible aspiring artist who was in and out of homelessness in Ferguson. Here’s more of the people we met:
Now, we’re at it again. We are the BLK SHP Foundation, a non-profit based in Oakland, CA, that aims to unlock the inner artist and creativity in everyone. We’ve connected with shepherds in seven cities across the country who invited us to their towns to see how they are unlocking creativity and potential from the Appalachian Mountains to Lake Michigan.
Here’s where we’re going:
May 3–5: Huntington, WV
May 6–8: Pittsburgh, PA
May 9: Holmes County, OH
May 10–12: Detroit, MI
May 12–14: Kokomo, IN
May 15: Chicago, IL
May 16–18: Milwaukee, WI
Along the way, we’ll meet STEAM educators who are reshaping education, like Devin Krugman at Oakland’s East Bay Innovation Academy who hosts a morning makerspace just for girls (see you photo and video below). Plus the mayors, entrepreneurs, philanthropists, executives, and artists who are changing their communities. We’ll share their stories online on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, plus here on Medium. Join us by following BLK SHP, and subscribing to The BLK SHP Podcast.
We couldn’t do this without our partners Cards Against Humanity, Chance the Rapper’s SocialWorks, DonorsChoose.org, Girls Driving for a Difference, Give Merit, Grace Weber’s Music Lab, IDEO Chicago, KIVA, Milwaukee Brewing, New America Foundation, Northwestern Mutual, Pittsburgh Children’s Museum, Pixar Animation Studios, Ponyride, Remake Learning Network, SHAK Makerspace, Teen Hype, X the Moonshot Factory and 88.9 Radio Milwaukee.
