AMERI’KANA Fest and Art as Mentorship need your vote to secure grant funding

Celebrate AMERI’KANA Music Festival 2024 Photographer: William J Stribling

July 2025’s Celebrate AMERI’KANA had its biggest year yet with 2,500 people in attendance across two stages, street parades, lion dancers, and a refugee-based band. Built on the hard work and career of Latin Grammy-nominated band, Making Movies, Enrique Chi has used the fest not just as a platform for elevating cultural movers and shakers, but also to benefit the musical nonprofit Art as Mentorship.

Chi’s work with AMERI’KANA was founded on eliminating gatekeeping—quite literally, from removing the cost of entry to the event.

“We sent out mailers to the neighborhood and had to put 35 languages on it… the whole backside said ‘You are welcome’ in their language,” says Chi. These events can often feel exclusive from minority communities, but he put in the hands-on work to make immigrant and refugee communities feel comfortable and wanted.

This year’s festival overcame significant budget cuts thanks to grassroots support from the local community. 

Stars Out: Event Details

Chi is in the running for a $120k grant with the Levitt Foundation that would bring a full concert series to Concourse Park.

Voting for them to win this foundation is essential for creating more opportunities for the next generation of Kansas City creatives. His youth-focused program allows young artists to get their chance in the spotlight, opening for headlining artists, and empowers them to express their creativity. “It’s one thing to express yourself scribbling with a crappy pen… another to have the right tools to express yourself,” says Chi.

The effort to uplift young people in marginalized communities with real access to professional-level platforms and training is essential for our future. 

If you weren’t able to make it to the music festival in July, Rebel Song Academy, Latin Grammy-award-winning La Lulu, Malek Azrael, Chi, and more special guests will be performing on September 17 at 7 p.m. at the Percheron rooftop.

Making Movies, Enrique’s band, will also be performing with the Marching Jayhawks on Saturday, September 20. They will be debuting a new song, “Nadie Sabe”—meaning “Nobody Knows.” Nobody knows what the future holds, so be rebellious and be yourself. Some young artists from Art as Mentorship will be performing alongside them, an incredibly powerful collaboration.

You can vote for Art as Mentorship to win the Levitt Foundation until September 15.