The culmination of
Afeni Shakur’s dedication to son Tupac and America’s youth has finally come to
fruition.
The activist has announced
that the Tupac Amaru Shakur Center for the Arts in Stone Mountain, Georgia will
open on June 11.
The $4 million dollar facility
was mostly funded by royalties received from the deceased rapper’s albums,
DVD’s and film projects.
The six-acre campus will
focus on mentoring high-risk youth between the ages of 12-18 and includes offices,
a visitor center, a gift shop, an art gallery a peace garden and other offerings.
“Nobody is more infatuated
with the energy of young people as me,” Afeni Shakur told AllHipHop.com.
“I’m looking at them run into a fire and nobody is saying it’s hot.”
Shakur said the center will
eventually grow to accommodate more youth and will include classrooms, a performing
arts theater, a community meeting space, a museum and a bronze statue of Tupac
– which will be unveiled in 2006 – are being planned.
The statute of Tupac will
stand at the center of the garden, inside a fountain in the shape of a gothic
cross, an image frequently associated with Shakur’s releases.
“We hope that people
will come to the peace garden and share a peaceful energy," Shakur said.
“This is what God has put me here to do. I love young people. I need to
emphatically stay on this course."
Tupac Shakur was shot multiple
times in Las Vegas, Nevada on September 7, 1996 after attending a Mike Tyson
fight. He died seven days.
Shakur’s murder
and the subsequent murder of friend-turned-rival Christopher "Notorious
B.I.G." Wallace six months later, remain unsolved murders.