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Baobab Cultural Center hopes fundraising campaign will help it stay open

For over a decade, the Baobab Cultural Center has taught visitors African and African-American history.

The Neighborhood of the Arts resource center has been around for 12 years and during this time it’s hosted major exhibits on African mask-making, movie screenings and there’s even a weekly yoga class.

But it may be forced to close its doors forever if Director Terry Chaka can’t raise $10,000 by the end of the year. 

This week, the center launched a GoFundMe pageand within just six days it was halfway to the goal. By Friday evening, they’d raised over $5,700. Many of those donations have been small; just $10 here or $20 there.

Director Terry Chaka is raising money to keep the Baobab Cultural Center open into 2018.
Credit Tianna Manon/WXXI News
Director Terry Chaka is raising money to keep the Baobab Cultural Center open into 2018.

“I really don’t care the amount,” said Chaka. “I know there’s some people who think it needs to big donors but I can add $25 and $25 and get $50. Then $50 and $50 to get $100 so I’m OK with that. It can be $10, it can be $5 so no matter what it is, it’s good.”

Chaka says the center has been struggling for about two years. Originally, she said, board members chased large donors but with many stepping down in the last few months she was able to pursue a more collective approach. She said by allowing the community to donate, it gives donors a stake in the success of the center.

She's actually been working without pay. And much of the staff has already stepped down or left because of the lack of pay.

“A lot of it that we did was for just the love of being here,” said Chaka. She opened the Center specifically for an interview with WXXI News.

Because of no funding, the Center no longer has normal operation hours. It opens for events instead. “We weren’t rewarded monetarily the way we should’ve been. However, because we believed in the mission we just kept working.”

The Center used to offer field trips to Rochester City School District students but the partnership dissolved when the Director of the District’s African and African-American Studies Department stepped down and the seat was left empty.

Chaka says theyalso can’t depend on grants; they fund exhibits, not operational costs. The programming at the Baobab is cheap or almost free for visitors. Chaka said she didn’t want to make the information inaccessible for normal Rochesterians. Instead, she’s hoping to create lasting power by increasing their popularity.

“I want to keep it at $10,” she said regarding prices for yoga and drumming. “If I can get ten people here, well that’s $100.”

Chaka wants people to know the Baobab Center is unique- it provides information you can't find in other afro-centric resource centers.

“There’s depth to what we do,” she said. “It’s not just on the surface. We’re not just showing masks here. The whole mask project was to look at what they really mean and how they present themselves as Africans are transported to this part of the world.”

She said through the mask-making exhibit, many learned about slavery in the western hemisphere and more about the preservation of history; it wasn’t just about masks.

There is no deadline on the GoFundMe page and Chaka is also accepting donations at the Center. It’s located on University Avenue, next to Writers & Books. Chaka said she thinks she’ll make their goal.

“The response since we put the word out has been fantastic. And I’m really, really proud of the Rochester community. I grew up here and lot of people have doubts about what folks here can do but I’m really proud of how the Rochester community is stepping up,” she said.