These ends are achieved through the exploration of visual and performing arts, celebrations, and programs that inform and enrich people’s lives. The Cultural Center’s Award-Winning Open-Mic Poetry Set has been at the center of the growing national cultural arts movement and has hosted such literary notables as Amiri Baraka, Jessica Care Moore, Kevin Powell, Sonia Sanchez, and Haki Madhabuti. The Center has also born the dynamic cast and production of Ego Trippin’, a program that fuses poetry, jazz, hip-hop, dance, and music in an exploration of pivotal social issues and ills. Committed to youth, the Cultural Center also sponsors an annual free summer lunch program for area children, providing sustenance, support, enrichment and fun for young people during the summer. The center hosts a variety of special events and celebrations that serve to ground community throughout the year including Juneteenth, Kwanzaa, and Black History Month activities.