CYD builds sustainable pathways for emerging artists and culture bearers by centering artistic identity, entrepreneurship, and wellbeing. This session gathered voices from the field to connect on how CYD programs nurture young creatives as whole people—supporting their artistic growth, economic resilience, and long-term thriving.

Featured CYD Programs

• InsideOut Literary Arts opens pathways to publication and secondary education for Detroit’s aspiring youth writers. Its in-school programs and the after-school Citywide Poets programs open the way to becoming the Detroit Youth Poet Laureate and receiving the Citywide Poets Scholarship for college.

• Studio T Arts and Entertainment (STAE), in Sacramento CA, began as an urban dance academy connecting talented youth performers to professional opportunities. STAE’s workforce programs now also extend from DJ-ing and beat making to media and event production. Early career artists expand their skills and networks on professional projects at STAE’s Innovation Factory.

• Seattle’s Totem Star is a community of diverse recording artists aged 14-25 supported by mentors devoted to cultivating collaboration, leadership, and self-identity through meaningful relationships. Its free studio serves as the community hub from which recordings, performances and careers grow.

Town Hall Host

• Lanisha Otuonye, Co-Founder and Creative Director of FamFrequency Productions in Philadelphia PA, will guide the Town Hall conversation. At FamFrequency, they have built a community for aspiring artists to collaboratively learn the ins and outs of the music business so they don’t have to find their way alone.