Strive Till I Rise is an organization founded by artist and peace advocate, Genesis Be. Strive is based in south Mississippi and Atlanta, GA.
We educate and amplify young leaders and changemakers using creative methods to positively serve their community. We serve as a conduit to harness creative power that shift systems and magnify the human dignity of communities at the intersection of race, gender and class.
We collaborate with deserving communities to amplify the voices of those impacted by mass incarceration, racial violence, addiction and neurodiversity. Through speaking engagements, art exhibitions, plays, documentaries and music we use new media as a tool for advocacy, education and community building.
Our name honors the memory of Emmett Till, a 14 year old boy who was murdered in Mississippi due to racist ideology.
We believe that creative expression is a basic human right and is an essential tool for unifying our community, amplifying deserving voices, bridging the divide and building a more inheritable tomorrow for future generations.
Upcoming Events
(Atlanta, GA) - On August 7th, 2025, our initiative People Not Things will be launching an art exhibit featuring emerging black queer women artists based in Georgia. Their work speaks to the queer experience in the South, bringing intersectional narrative to a broader audience. We will be featuring 5 exceptional talents who have not had the opportunity to show their work in a gallery or museum yet. This exhibit will take place in August 2025 in collaboration with Callanwolde Fine Arts Center.
The creative mind is one of innovation and artists have a unique ability to capture nuances of existence that, when shared, can shift public perception and contribute to movement building and communal healing through conversation. We believe that the true power of art is the ability to bring people together across divides, to expose new solutions and realities to complacent populations, to disrupt modes of division by appealing to our natural human inclination of wonder, empathy, imagination, curiosity and connection
Featured Emergent Artists
Jona Moon Dlamini Revell
Niancé
Yolanda Grace
(2 more artists TBD)
REcent WORK
Freedom Rising Exhibition
In 2024, our initiative People Not Things teamed up with Middle Church to launch The Freedom Rising Art Exhibition. This unique exhibit features 20 original works by incarcerated artists currently being held at the Georgia Department of Corrections.
(April 4 - May 31 2024)
Brooklyn Art Haus, Marcy Avenue, Brooklyn, NY, USA
24 Marcy Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11211
About this event
Freedom Rising art exhibition is produced by Middle Church, and curated by art activist, Genesis Be, in collaboration with HeartBound Ministries and People Not Things. This exhibit culminates in a night of musical performances on April 27th at Brooklyn Art Haus as a part of the greater Freedom Rising Conference taking place April 26th - 28th.
We aim to challenge our audience's concept of freedom by highlighting the imagination, dreams, memories, life experiences, and talents of artists who do not have their freedom. There is a need to reevaluate our collective morality around the American prison system. Who do we deem worthy of freedom? Who do we believe is deserving of confinement and isolation? By humanizing the carceral issue through art, we can begin to analyze the way criminalization and dehumanization allow the general public to grant permission to reduce humans to "criminals" and remove them from our society and collective consciousness. This exhibit also features two artists from the "free world" to showcase in solidarity with their incarcerated counterparts. Here, they use their privilege of freedom to help bring attention to our confined artists, who are unable to promote their work to the general public. As you view the work, think about your individual role in the prison industrial complex. May it spark a curiosity that leads to research; may research lead to action.
Special thanks to you Focus For Health Foundation for your continued support.
Featured Artists:
Bobby A.
Antowon R.
Henry C.
Juan M.
Kevin D.
Seth B.
David W.
D Garcia
Robert S.
Artists in solidarity:
Mary Jo Lombardo
Yolanda Grace
“We Are Mississippi” Video Series
In 2022, we launched our new video series highlighting members of our community who are changing our State for the better. The series was created to give visibility to our unsung community leaders, to document movements in Mississippi that deserve to be archived for future generations to see. View more episodes HERE
