Tamir Rice 21st Birthday Celebration

As we approach June 25 this year, the day that would have marked Tamir Rice's 21st birthday, we are reminded of the milestone moments that carry immovable weight in raising generations of Black and Brown children in this country. On this milestone birthday, we are humbled and honored to join Samaria Rice, Tamir's mother, in celebrating his life, legacy and her righteous campaign for justice.

On Sunday, June 25, from 3:00 to 5:00pm, we invite you to join us as we honor and celebrate Tamir with his mother Samaria Rice, family, friends and the Tamir Rice Foundation at the Tamir Rice Memorial Gazebo on the Stony Island Arts Bank campus.

The day will include a prayer by Michael “Uncle Mike” Petty; a welcome by Ms. Samaria Rice; guest speeches by Terrence Spivey on the performing arts, LaTonya Goldsby and Kareem Henton on activism, and Dion Green on gun violence; performances by avery r. young, Syleena Johnson and Terence Tykeem; and closing remarks by the Rice Family.

Rebuild Foundation is the proud steward of the Tamir Rice Memorial Gazebo - an object of deep care in our conservation work - near which Tamir Rice was murdered. After the City of Cleveland moved to destroy the structure and a number of museums in Cleveland declined to house the gazebo, our founder, artist Theaster Gates, offered to help preserve and make the structure visible as a call to action and potent reminder of the racial violence Black bodies face at the hands of law enforcement. At the request of Ms. Rice, in the fall of 2016, the gazebo was brought from the Cudell Recreation Center in Cleveland, Ohio, to the Stony Island Arts Bank in partnership with the Tamir Rice Foundation.

Thank you, Ms. Rice, for entrusting us to care for Tamir's legacy in Chicago.