Who We Are
Our Story
Our organization, MHDB, was established in 2005 in NYC as a performing arts school centered on dance, real-world arts career experiences, and teacher training through the Artsucation curriculum created by our Founder, Dr. Hanan Hameen, Ed.D. Artsucation is the interdisciplinary application of the arts as creative sciences combined with traditional academic subjects and culture. Upon Lupus diagnosis in 2010, Dr. Hanan, a tenured NYC public high school dance educator and certified principal, was forced to close her brick-and-mortar school, MHDB, and leave the Department of Education. In 2012, she moved to New Haven, CT, with her parents as caregivers and permanent working disability status. Responding to neighborhood youth gun violence, to care for her community, Dr. Hanan went to Stetson Library and created free community programs based on Artsucation to teach the youth, uplift, and unite community. Through arts, culture, and education, AAN became the umbrella connecting our programs, organizations, international communities, businesses, restaurants, and generations.
Our Philosophy
Our organization’s community includes students, youth, adults, parents, families, Elders, educators, scholars, artists, vendors, media, small businesses, and restaurants selling cultural foods to people from education, sports, community service, medicine, beauty industry, culture trailblazers, repatriates, authors, and politicians. To help our community’s traditions continue to thrive, we unite people through collaboration, creative problem-solving, and real-world application of skills in our programs. The AAN community is committed to ensuring that Black-led and Latino grassroots organizations, community elders, and youth drive the future of this organization together. Communities start with families bonded by love, experiences, and principles. The concept of unity (Umoja) is the lifeblood of any community. In the spirit of family, they experience the values of intergenerational respect and learning through cooperative economics (Ujamaa) and life-affirming living standards. The future of AAN encompasses sustainable programming that lasts long-term for generations beyond the current Coalition as a constant part of the cultural infrastructure of New Haven. The future of our AAN projects is one of expansion, inclusion, and long-term structural change. We envision a cultural exchange through the lens of humanity that transcends divisions to catalyze justice-centered policies, institutional transformation, and equitable resource distribution for the City of New Haven, the greater Connecticut community, and the international arts community. With intergenerational members in planning, operations, and programming, AAN has won the hearts, respect, and trust of Greater New Haven. Evidenced by published articles through the years and the support of the city administration of New Haven, its reputation remains untarnished. With the youth central to our organization and part of leadership, our future will thrive for generations.
Our Programs
Our yearly programming created ongoing sustainable paid opportunities with promotion for cultural artists and small businesses while expanding on and developing new intergenerational community gathering traditions through our Juneteenth Next Gen, Juneteenth Jazz, Elder Honoring Ceremony, Juneteenth Flag Raising, Juneteenth Restaurant Week, JCGNH, “Africa Is Me!”, New Haven Hip Hop Conference, Keepers of the Culture Performing Arts Company, New Haven African Arts Alliance, Artsucation Cultural Exchange programs with Senegal, newly, “Wisdom and Wiki,” and Council of Elders, which is important work. Our Juneteenth is a city staple and tradition of New Haven, Connecticut. Our collaborative intergenerational cultural programming structure based on our Juneteenth Coalition is the new standard, with Elder honoring evolving into a common practice adopted by other organizations. Creating paid opportunities for traditional artists and curating intergenerational spaces is important in New Haven because cultural/traditional artists are asked to perform for free.