UNITY is a registered charity that uses hip-hop to improve the lives of youth and assist them in living out their fullest potential. This charity has been empowering and engaging youth from communities and neighbourhoods all across Canada for 9 years. They now reach 75 000 youth around the country. Some of the core values that really embody what UNITY charity is all about are: respect, integrity, passion, youth, and community. This year’s UNITY festival is set to celebrate everything that the organization stands for and truly unite people through different forms of hip-hop.
UNITY festival is a three day series of events that will take place from July 13th-July 15th. The festival will be featuring local youth in the best of beatboxing, breakdancing, spoken word, and visual arts.
Here is last year’s awesome UNITY Festival highlights:
I had the awesome opportunity to speak with Michael Prosserman, founder & executive director of UNITY charity.
Michael had a passion for breakdancing since he was 12 years old. Growing up he dealt with hard times in his family and looked for some kind of community where he could find positivity. He discovered the hip-hop and breakdancing community when he was a teen; it became his second family and an outlet for him to cope with stress and challenges. By the time he was in grade 11 he decided he wanted to share the hip-hop community with other young people as a tool for them to cope with life. Ever since then UNITY has just continued to evolve into something big. His focus going forward now with the charity is to improve the mental health and well being of youth using positive outlets like spoken word poetry, hip-hop, breakdancing, and graffiti art. What Michael is most excited about this year’s festival is that it’s the 10th year anniversary and they’re really featuring lots of local talent.
Some of the main artists you can expect at the Festival this year include:
–TOBi
–Los Poetas
–The Sorority
–Jayd Ink
–Lola Bunz
–Ebhoni
Some of the main performances you can expect at the festival this year include:
–Obuxum
–Mobi Mawla
–Zakisha Brown
–Keysha Freshh
–Yannick Green
You can follow the UNITY account @unitycharity on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook.
