Afeni Shakur Announces Opening Date For Tupac Amaru Shakur Center

[Issa_Scriptures]

The culmination of Afeni Shakur's dedication to son Tupac and America's youth has finally come to fruition.

The activist has announced that the Tupac Amaru Shakur Center for the Arts in Stone Mountain, Georgia will open on June 11.

The $4 million dollar facility was mostly funded by royalties received from the deceased rapper’s albums, DVD’s and film projects.

The six-acre campus will focus on mentoring high-risk youth between the ages of 12-18 and includes offices, a visitor center, a gift shop, an art gallery a peace garden and other offerings.

“Nobody is more infatuated with the energy of young people as me,� Afeni Shakur told AllHipHop.com. “I'm looking at them run into a fire and nobody is saying it's hot.�

Shakur said the center will eventually grow to accommodate more youth and will include classrooms, a performing arts theater, a community meeting space, a museum and a bronze statue of Tupac – which will be unveiled in 2006 – are being planned.

The statute of Tupac will stand at the center of the garden, inside a fountain in the shape of a gothic cross, an image frequently associated with Shakur’s releases.

“We hope that people will come to the peace garden and share a peaceful energy," Shakur said. “This is what God has put me here to do. I love young people. I need to emphatically stay on this course."

Tupac Shakur was shot multiple times in Las Vegas, Nevada on September 7, 1996 after attending a Mike Tyson fight. He died seven days.

Shakur's murder and the subsequent murder of friend-turned-rival Christopher "Notorious B.I.G." Wallace six months later, remain unsolved murders.