The City, Inc.
1315 12th Avenue NorthMinneapolisMN55411612-377-7559612-377-6719

Program: Drop-In/Recreation Year Started: 1967 Focus: Arts and crafts, writing, cultural activities, dance, music Youth Served: 1000 per month Budget: N/A The City, Inc. is a Minneapolis alternative school and social services agency that serves inner-city youth and families. The organization's summer- and after-school-operated Drop-In & Recreation Program serves an average of 1,000 youth per month, providing a variety of sports, arts, cultural and educational activities. Naima Richmond has worked in The City, Inc.'s Drop-In/Recreation Program for three years as a consultant for children ages 5-13 years old, though for the past year her focus has been on 5-to-8-year-olds. Her work includes art instruction, consisting of culturally themed work such as drawings about stories related to African Americans. Her students also do arts and crafts with holiday/seasonal themes like Christmas/Kwanzaa and Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Richmond also instructs the children on reading and literature, reading them folktales and true stories and instructing them on the difference between fiction and nonfiction. She also teaches the children how to read and write poetry. Some of the children's work has been published in the Minneapolis Spokesman, an African American community newspaper. The first year Richmond was employed at The City, Inc. she and her students published a book of poetry entitled "Grandma's Writing Class." Richmond's children don't just have all work and no play; game playing and singing is part of their activities as well. The Nimely Pan African Dance Company operates a West African Drum and Dance program at The City, Inc. as part of the organization's Drop-In/Recreation Program. The course provides hands-on instruction in dance and music as well as lessons in personal responsibility that are adopted from a Liberian curriculum. This method of combining the creative with the practical has a positive and lasting effect on the attitude and behavior of "at-risk" youth. The program provides an opportunity for youth to see themselves and adults in a positive setting. Learning dance and drumming gives young people a chance to succeed, which they may not have had before. NPAD founder and instructor Nimely Napla has over 20 years experience in his field; in 1996 he was awarded the Certificate for Excellence by Minneapolis Mayor Sharon Sayles-Belton. In July 1999 Ambassador Rachel G. Diggs invited NPAD to perform at the Embassy of Liberia for a two-day National Independence Day celebration.