The thumping music, scent of barbecue and fish and celebrity guests didn’t detract attention away from a profound cause at the fourth annual 135th Street Agency Harlem BBQ & Fish Fry. The networking affair for some of urban entertainment’s most relevant tastemakers, including media personality Jacque Reid and former BET personality Free, partnered with the Harlem-based nonprofit, Global Language Project, which teaches foreign languages to underserved elementary students in an effort to help them compete in the global workforce and broaden their world perspective.
Jacque Reid knows firsthand the importance of expanding one’s horizons through the introduction of a new culture or language, which is why she urges urban youth to explore life outside the U.S. Reid credits her experiences overseas with giving her the impetus to achieve a higher level of success.
“Young people of color need to experience other cultures abroad. It motivated me and made me realize that the U.S. wasn’t it. To go and see the different ways people lived was eye-opening and made me want to do more than just the status quo. It’s easy to do a nine-to-five but there is an entire world out there,” she says.
Through Reid’s testimony and that of others at the event, it became apparent that programs like the Global Language Project are vital to creating avenues out of neighborhoods riddled with social inequities in order to foster the development and worldview of our urban youth. –souleo
For more information, please visit: globallanguageproject.org
