City of San Jose Awards Hip-Hop Chess Federation Grant for Chess and Life Strategies Summer Camp
HHCF Opens FREE Summer Camp to Keep Kids Focused on School and Off the Streets
May 20th, 2015 San Jose, CA – The Hip-Hop Chess Federation (HHCF) is happy to announce they will be hosting a FREE Chess and Life Strategies summer camp starting June 15th to August 15th 2015 at the Seven Trees Community Center in San Jose, CA. This powerful, innovative education program is brought to you in part by the city of San Jose awarding the HHCF the Safe Summer Initiative Grant (SSIG). The purpose of the SSIG is to give funds to organizations that strive to help teens in underserved areas. “It is a deep honor for the HHCF to be awarded the SSIG.” stated VP of Outreach Meek Gaborski. “Our commitment to inspire and enable young minds to higher heights, is rapidly getting more recognition. Everyone in HHCF is excited.”
The HHCF Chess and Life Strategies program teaches more than chess. In the HHCF chess positions on the board are matched with lessons that teach teens the power of patience, planning and independent thinking methods. “We make the game more culturally relevant to young people by showing them rappers, business leaders and politicians who play chess.” stated HHCF Founder, Adisa Banjoko. “This gets their attention and allows them to see themselves in the game. Sadly in the summer, many kids get into gangs, drugs and bad behavior because they don’t have anyone to work with them. HHCF is here for the kids of San Jose. We have a lot of gang activity out here. ”
Adisa Banjoko recently served as the education and history consultant to the World Chess Hall of Fame (WCHOF) exhibit Living Like Kings in St. Louis, Missouri. The Living Like Kings grand opening broke all previous attendance records for WCHOF grand openings. RZA from Wu-Tang Clan (HHCF’s Director of Ourtreach) and Adisa spent time in St. Louis last year after the police killing of Mike Brown. They spoke to more than 1000 at-risk teens, including incarcerated youth. Their lectures centered on the impact of chess and martial arts can have on their discipline and decision making. In 2015, Adisa Banjoko gave powerful lectures at Lehigh, Oberlin College and University of Connecticut among others.
HHCF also released a mixtape promoting their ideals of chess and peace at www.soundcloud.com/hiphopchess .
For more on HHCF and their Chess and Life Strategies programs visit www.hiphopchess.com
About HHCF: The Hip-Hop Chess Federation is the world’s first nonprofit (501c3) to fuse music, chess and martial arts to promote unity, strategy and nonviolence. They host lectures, panels, and celebrity chess events to help at-risk, gang-impacted and gang intentional youth make better decisions in life. The HHCF has been featured on Good Morning America, Forbes, Chess Life, VIBE and Rolling Stone.
Hip-Hop Chess Federation 