Red Bull Announces Final Participants for First-Ever U.S. Social Entrepreneur Program

BALTIMORE, MARYLAND--(Marketwired - July 17, 2017) -

Editors Note: There are two images and a video associated with this press release.

Hundreds of people from across the country applied and only a few were hand selected to be a part of the first-ever U.S. Red Bull Amaphiko Academy, a social entrepreneurship program that aims to bring together and uplift individuals who are using their talent and energy to tackle social issues in their community. Today the select group of individuals - bios below - were announced and on August 10 they will make their way to Baltimore, MD for a 10-day immersion of lectures, storytelling workshops, collaboration sessions, coaching clinics, and business simulations all hosted by some of the country's leading change makers.

"I'm a passionate person who funnels my experiences into creating solutions and opportunities; I'm about action, results and more importantly, positive impact," said Brittany Young, a 2017 Red Bull Amaphiko Academy participant and founder of B-360 Baltimore, a community partnership creating an avenue for students to learn about science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) using dirt-bikes. "I want everyone to see that small good deeds can lead to large impacts and positive changes."

Along with the 10-day residency, Red Bull Amaphiko Academy will host a slate of free public events for the larger Baltimore community. Events range from art exhibitions, musical performances, and poetry readings to evenings exploring healthy and mindful lifestyles in the city including a roller skating night at the Shake & Bake Family Fun Center. The Academy will culminate with the Red Bull Amaphiko Festival highlighting the social innovation projects of the Academy participants as well as performances, pop-up booths, and interactive activities for the general public. The current line-up of free public events is below and can also be found on http://www.redbullamaphiko.com.

• Red Bull Amaphiko Academy Open House and Gallery Show - August 14, 7pm, Eubie Blake Cultural Center
  • Come see inside the Academy, including "What We Learn While Waiting," Conversations with the Greatest City in America exhibition by Malaika Aminata Clements, Shan Wallace, LieAnne Navarro and the people of Baltimore City. The evening will also feature a Made In Baltimore pop-up shop opening, art, poetry, and complimentary food & beverages.
    
    

• BALANCED with Brown and Healthy - August 15, 6pm, Shake & Bake Family Fun Center
  • A special evening exploring healthy and mindful lifestyles in the city featuring meditation, yoga, dance, healthy food, and rollerskating.
    
    

• THE MEDICINE SHOW with Be Free Fridays - August 17, 7:30pm, Arena Players
  • An entertaining and inspiring night of storytelling with poets, comedians, musicians and more exploring the ideas at the forefront of "what's next" in social innovation.
    
    

• RED BULL AMAPHIKO FESTIVAL with Impact Hub Baltimore - August 20, 3pm, Station North
  • The Red Bull Amaphiko Festival is a celebration of creativity, community, and innovative solutions to some of the social challenges facing U.S. communities today. There will be a series of social innovation projects on display from the 2017 Red Bull Amaphiko Academy participants as well as musical guests, interactive art installations, guest speakers, discussions and more.
    
    

• RSVPs for all events can be made at http://www.redbullamaphiko.com

Red Bull Amaphiko Academy will take place at the renowned Eubie Blake Cultural Center in the Mt. Vernon part of Baltimore August 10-20. The well-known community space allows the public to explore the city's musical Jazz heritage and celebrate Baltimore artists. Throughout the year visitors can view exhibitions of local and national visual artists, attend live concerts, and participate in cultural arts classes, workshops and clinics.

"The Red Bull Amaphiko program is about people creating in order to help and serve others. The Eubie Blake Cultural Center shares a similar mission and because of this common goal it made perfect sense to have Eubie Blake as the home of the inaugural U.S. Academy," said Troy Burton, Director of Eubie Blake Cultural Center. "We're thrilled to be a part of another impactful community program and to continue to positively influence the future of this great city of Baltimore."

"Amaphiko" translates to "wings" in Zulu, an official language in the program's origin country, South Africa. Red Bull Amaphiko Academies have taken place five times across the world since 2014 - three times in South Africa and twice in Brazil - and have supported more than 100 social ventures globally. To learn more about the Red Bull Amaphiko Academy in Baltimore, please visit this link or view this brief introductory video.

MEET THE 2017 RED BULL AMAPHIKO ACADEMY U.S. PARTICIPANTS

• Amanda Brinkman (New Orleans, LA) is the founder of Google Ghost, an online platform that makes and sells responsibly produced goods for and by women. Their products are created in ethical working conditions, which means no sweatshops, domestic production, and recyclable shipping materials. Their mission is to expand women's significant contributions to our shared history and shape how young women tell their stories in the future.
  
  
• Amy Kaherl (Detroit, MI) is the founder of Detroit SOUP, a micro-granting dinner celebrating and supporting creative projects in Detroit. While eating dinner, attendees listen to presentations about social impact initiatives. Then they vote on which project they think will benefit the city most and their five-dollar donations get pooled together and given to one initiative. Winners come back to a future SOUP dinner to report on their project's progress.
  
  As of 2016, SOUP events have hosted over 150 dinners, and raised $130,000 that went directly to community projects.
  
  
• Brittany Young (Baltimore, MD) is the founder of B-360, a community partnership dedicated to changing the perception of engineers and dirt bike riders by creating an avenue for students to learn about STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) using dirt-bikes.
  
  B-360 uses dirt bike culture as a platform to repair and build relationships in the community, uncover new and different career opportunities, give and enhance career skills, advocate, provide safe spaces, and leverage the STEM gap and uniting all of Baltimore in a safe and fun way.
  
  
• Brittni Kellom (Detroit, MI) is the founder of Just Speak, an organization that offers services to sexual abuse victims. It provides legal advocates, psychological and medical resources and support from other survivors as well as safe and professional forensic interviewing in partnership with the judicial system within one facility.
  
  Their mission is to empower every young survivor of child sexual abuse, sexual assault, and emotional/physical abuse within a safe space to share stories and collaborate in a way that leads to their involvement in the community as advocates.
  
  
• C. Harvey (Baltimore, MD) is the founder of Baltimore's Gifted, an organization that seeks to address the exploitation of black youth artists by nonprofits and predominately white institutions, and youth unemployment.
  
  The initiative is designed to serve as an entrepreneurial tool and digital platform that allows young people to showcase and sell their original visual art as well as art-derived apparel and reproductions while learning career skills in a real-world setting.
  
  
• Chad Cherry (Fort Lauderdale, FL) is a chef and founder of Refresh Live, focused on developing community education and empowerment programs to combat food disparity, address food deserts, and bring a farm-to-table and organic lifestyle to income-challenged areas.
  
  Through a combination of education, lifestyle, and delicious food services, his goal is to change people's relationship, knowledge, and experiences around food.
  
  
• Changa Bell (Baltimore, MD) is the founder of BMYI (The Black Male Yoga Initiative) (http://www.bmyi.org/), an organization founded to further the health interests of Black males worldwide. They provide training, informational products, workshops, and retreats to help Black men of all ages to become aware, engaged and empowered in mindfulness, meditation and yoga so that they may live lives of peace, calm and optimal health.
  
  In addition, BMYI trains yoga teachers to actively lead their communities and organizations by first leading themselves.
  
  
• Dominic Nell (Baltimore, MD) started his City Weeds microgreens business in 2017, selling at the Fresh at the Avenue stand at the Avenue Market in Baltimore and teaching students about microgreens in city schools. Dovecote Cafe recently signed on as his first restaurant client, and he's currently looking for more partners to support his budding business.
  
  Nell partners with fellow School of Food student Juan Nance, owner of Healthy People Juice, to incorporate his greens into Nance's juice line. The two have collaborated on flavors like the green juice "Kale Yeah."
  
  
• Eli Erlick (Sebastopol, CA) is the co-founder of Trans Student Educational Resources, a youth-led organization dedicated to transforming the educational environment for trans and gender-nonconforming students through advocacy and empowerment.
  
  She is a former student media ambassador and a current National Advisory Council member for GLSEN as well as a former Youth Advisory Council member for The Trevor Project. She has been recognized internationally by Teen Vogue, Refinery29, and numerous other publications for her organizing. Her work and writing has been featured in the New York Times, Time Magazine, and NPR among dozens of outlets.
  
  
• Jon Dengler (Tampa, FL) is the founder of Well Built Bikes, a bike shop that provides access to affordable bikes and workshops, ranging from repairs to safety.
  
  A need for sustainable affordable transportation is something that transcends economic boundaries and provides common ground for all. By accessing bikes that would have been considered garbage, as well as donations from supportive neighbors, Well Built Bikes ensures all people who need a bike are able to own one.
  
  
• Muhammad Najeeullah (Baltimore, MD) is the founder of The Pop Up Robot Gaming Grounds (PURGG) Project, an interactive robotic gaming system designed to engage and introduce the youth of Baltimore to STEAM-related education, careers and entrepreneurs.
  
  
• Matthew Kincaid (New Orleans, LA) is the founder of Overcoming Racism, an organization that seeks to build more equitable institutions, through comprehensive race and equity training.
  
  With a primary focus on education, Overcoming Racism equips educators with the tools to build culturally responsive schools and classrooms, that promote the development of the next generation of anti-racist agents of change.
  
  
• Marisa Hamamato (Los Angeles, CA) is the founder of Infinite Flow, an organization whose mission is to mass market inclusion through dance and innovation. They are also America's first professional wheelchair ballroom dance company.
  
  Infinite Flow is dedicated to increasing access to quality dance instruction for people with disabilities in inclusive environments and building a world-class professional dance company, which includes dancers with and without disabilities, as a vehicle to break stereotypes and perceived barriers.
  
  
• Walker Marsh (Baltimore, MD) is the farmer and founder of Tha Flower Factory, a repurposed empty half-acre lot located in the Broadway East neighborhood of Baltimore, MD. Its mission is to grow high quality sustainable flowers and herbs, promote green entrepreneurship, be a steward for the environment, provide experience-based training to others and raise the consciousness of the community.
  
  

About Red Bull Amaphiko

Red Bull Amaphiko supports social entrepreneurs who are making a difference in their community and aims to inspire a broad audience to do the same. This global program includes development programs and tools, such as Academies and workshops, digital know-how and resources for social entrepreneurs; as well as events and programs which connects them to a supportive community and contributors who bring in the skills, resources, time; and a world-wide network of like-minded individuals reflected in an online community. It enables producing and spreading stories through an online magazine, various Red Bull channels and broader media.

The Red Bull Amaphiko Academy will begin in Baltimore, MD this August.

Red Bull Content Pool

Through the Red Bull network, hi-res video and still images are captured and made immediately available for editorial use for all media channels including television, film, print, mobile and digital. The content is centrally located in the Red Bull Content Pool for media partners at www.redbullcontentpool.com.

To view the video and photos associated with this press release, please visit the following links:

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