Construction
began over the weekend in Stone Mountain, Georgia, on
an arts center honoring Tupac
Shakur.
Family of
the slain rapper and political leaders in DeKalb County
gathered Saturday to break ground on the Tupac Amaru Center
for the Arts. Shakur’s family has lived in Stone Mountain
for nearly a decade.
Expected to
open in March 2003, the center will feature a performing-arts
studio space and an art gallery. Art that Tupac’s fans
have sent his mother, Afeni Shakur, will adorn the walls
initially. “The center is a reason to give our children
hope, instead of being in pain,” Afeni Shakur said. The
center is the first of it’s kind.
The Tupac
Amaru Center for the Arts will also include a garden commemorating
Shakur, who was shot dead in Las Vegas in 1996, and other
victims of violence.