PUBLIC ART: PR-G.ORG / The Art of Life
Get off the corner, the couch and the passenger seat of your best friend’s car, there’s a new sheriff in town, Barnabus Shakur, founder of Project Re-Generation (PR-G) in Bed Stuy, Brooklyn. On a mission to eliminate teenage after-school idleness through educational programs, PR-G has been empowering youth through physical fitness, financial literacy, job skills and mental calisthenics for the last 7 years. Through community partnerships with local homeowners, volunteer educators and corporate entities like the New York Knicks, PR-G’s commitment to creating a college bound culture within the urban community has reached over 500 teens and 3,000 Bed Stuy residents.
Fundamental to the program’s philosophy is a commitment to the development of personal integrity and knowledge of self. To this end PR-G engages young people in the study of Urban Contemporary Jujitsu under Grand Master Bill McCloud and the mantra, “The art of 360 -Perfecting every aspect of your being!” The regimen includes Urban Contemporary Jujitsu, Aikido, Yoga, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Cardio Kickboxing.
Other PR-G programs consist of the NY Knicks Poetry Jam Sessions (an 8 week poetry program with performance opportunities), Foot Soldiers (a money management, job readiness and community service initiative) and Rites of Passage (a program designed to support personal development, community care and hard work). Commitment like Shakur’s, to structure, guidance and community, lead to the optimal functioning of young people and represents the possibilities of what can happen when private citizens take public action! Join PR-G for their 6th Annual Community Pride Day at Von King Park in Bed Stuy, Brooklyn on July 12th, 2008.
