The Christian urban artistic community has not only been hit hard by hurricanes Irma and Harvey, but they’ve also been leading in the way in front-line relief. From Miami, to Tampa, Orlando, Jacksonville, and all the way to Atlanta and Houston, dozens of artists have been displaced along with their families. Despite their inconvenience, many have led relief efforts that are serving hundreds and thousands more.
Pastor Tommy “Urban D” Kyllonen of Crossover Church in Tampa, Florida has opened their church to be a place where people can come to get meals, water, and other needed supplies in the aftermath. They are raising money and supplies and the instructions for how to give are below:
Tre9, who was one of the co-founders of this website, started right from the moment that Hurricane Harvey hit. Based in Houston, Tre9 has been mobilizing several other volunteers and artists to rescue families out of their homes, and deliver supplies and water. To find out how you can volunteer, join Tre9 online at https://www.facebook.com/TreToTheNine.
Chris Chicago, also a co-founder of this website, was greatly affected as he and his family were flooded out of their apartment in Houston, and even ended up on the national news being rescued in a boat. Regardless, Chris was running the NGEN FM radio station using only his cell phone even when he didn’t have power and their apartment building was being flooded. Since then, NGEN radio has been delivering food, water, supplies and involved with their parent station KSBJ in raising money for the Houston community relief efforts. To give to KSBJ and NGEN radio and their relief efforts, go to https://www.ksbj.org/
Josh Niemyjski, owner of the website sphereofhiphop.com has teamed up with DJ Because, and they have put together a DJ “scratch” vinyl record that they’re selling to raise money for hurricane relief. The vinyl record called Sushi Breaks includes a mixture of instrumentals and vocal phrases to use and can be ordered for $10 per record. 100% of that goes to the Houston Food Bank. The Houston Food Bank has buying power with their food distribution partners so they can make each dollar donated stretch for 3 meals worth of food. Selling 100 copies of the Sushi Breaks will help the Houston Food Bank to serve 3,000 meals.
https://bethelofhouston.wufoo.com/forms/houston-from-scratch/
These are the relief efforts that we know about. If you know of some more, please let us know at media@jamthehype.com and we’ll try to include the listing here.
