Photo courtesy Your Move MKE
Playing chess at Your Move MKE
Playing chess at Your Move MKE
Your Move MKE is an organization with the mission of improving quality of life on Milwaukee’s South Side through hip hop-oriented initiatives and spaces. Founded in 2020, they strive to bring families together through programming that focuses on self-expression, charity and skill-building. The organization’s executive director is Raquel “Rockz” Aleman.
Chartered shortly before the pandemic hit, Your Move MKE was co-founded by Rockz, Brandon “Super Ego” Kitts and Alberto “Blade” Vallejo. The Hip Hop Chess Club, which was founded in 2015 and puts the game of chess in the same space as kids learning how to make beats and write raps, became their first official program as a business. The organizers wanted their name to honor the chess club while embracing the notion that success comes from when one takes ownership over their goals. “Between 2015 and 2020, we were running Hip Hop Chess Club just as an organic grassroots type of thing,” Rockz explains.
Upon the tragic death of a young member named Fabian Guzman, the organizers realized that they ought to be more than just a club. “We had to be something that would impact our whole community and reach different youth,” she continued. “Whether someone has an interest in chess or writing or DJing, hip hop could be a vehicle for all of that.”
Urban Culture
Photo courtesy Your Move MKE
Break Dancing at Your Move MKE
Break Dancing at Your Move MKE
According to Rockz, hip hop and chess are alike because they are both forms of self-expression that play a part in urban culture. “Growing up, I learned how to play chess because my dad was in prison and I would go visit him and that’s what we’d do,” she recalls. “If you go to New York you’ll see people playing chess everywhere in the parks. When it comes to hip hop, groups like Wu-Tang Clan played chess all the time and so would many other hip hop heads in the studio. The two coincide so much in the sense that they encourage being confident in yourself and not being afraid to express your style.”
After being awarded the Zero Youth Corrections Grant in October, Your Move MKE immediately began developing new programs. These include Writing Sessions to explore creative techniques such as journaling and poetry, Makin’ Moves Breakdancing to teach dance as a force of both physical and mental therapy, and Knowledge of Health where guest speakers come to educate folks about wellness. Other community events Your Move MKE have hosted range from a coat drive, a backpack drive, a car wash and a Halloween party.
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“We see a lot of families who are eager to come and just be somewhere without cell phones or TV,” Rockz said. “They’re enjoying quality time together and being out of the house while bridging the generational gaps between children and adults, and that’s something that can have a lasting effect.”
Nurture and Entertainment
Photo courtesy Your Move MKE
Your Move MKE
Your Move MKE
When a space can promote a duality of nurture and entertainment, everybody wins. Rockz continues, “There’s a lot of youth who are uncomfortable speaking to adults and a lot of adults who are uncomfortable speaking to youth. It’s really important to have these community spaces for them to interact without any judgment and to just be themselves and have fun.”
Their work is concentrated on the South Side as a response to the underfunding and lack of resources that communities there face. “We don’t have the programs that we used to have here when I was growing up,” Rockz reflects. “There were community centers and choices of places we could go, and the south side just doesn’t have that any longer for young people. We want to keep our culture alive and have that representation for Black and Brown youth.”
Your Move MKE look forward to launching a couple more programs this year starting with Urban Trade Skills, which will be an opportunity for youth to be tutored on home improvement and handiness. The organization is also working on getting their own brick-and-mortar spot on 11th and Mitchell. “The building is actually being torn down and we’re going to stay after its redevelopment,” Rockz said.
Makin’ Moves Breakdancing meets every other Monday, Hip Hop Chess Club meets every other Thursday and Writing Sessions meets every other Friday. Hip Hop Chess Club will debut at Milwaukee Public Library Mitchell St. Maker Space on February 25 from 2-4:30 p.m. Visit Your Move MKE’s website here.
