Free food, art, music, games - everything you need to end a great semester and kick off a much needed summer!

Featuring ROCNATION Recording Artist & Detroit's very own Mayaeni, Citywide Poets (Detroit, MI), AnnaMalistiik, Yada Yada, and more! We will also have a sexual assault awareness installation by I Will, a journal group led by a NELP alum, a photo booth, and more!

VANGUARDS 2015: Voice
The University of Michigan has historically been a haven for activism and social change, offering the perfect environment to stand up and make your voice heard. In the past, these movements have created community and brought people together. This year there has been a resurgence of activism, but instead of bringing people together, this movement has focused on our differences instead of focusing on what we have in common. Within each of our distinct races and social identities, we are all students, and more importantly, we are all artists. VANGUARDS: VOICE seeks to bring people from every part of campus together, with art as the common medium, to remind us that we share this common thread.

| ABOUT FOKUS |

FOKUS nurtures success in communities by exposing community members to unexpected art experiences. This exposure helps them discover their own creativity and use it to better their communities. One driving force of the organization is to highlight the fact that art plays a role in everything from education to entertainment to activism to health to community building and much more. We believe that the arts enable people to rise above barriers in society by creating new ways of thinking, communicating and interacting. FOKUS’s mission is to educate, empower and unite communities through the arts.

| WHAT IS VANGUARDS? |

VANGUARDS is an annual event that started in April of 2005 that is produced by FIGHTING OBSTACLES KNOWING ULTIMATE SUCCESS (FOKUS). Modeled with respect to a classic block party, Vanguards is FOKUS’s flagship event, showcasing and introducing the FOKUS vision of inclusivity, fun, creativity, and collaborative learning to a wide array of students, professors, staff, and Ann Arbor community.

| ENTERTAINMENT |
This year we are bringing out several performers. Headlining the event will be Detroit-based singer and guitarist Mayaeni, who is signed to RocNation Records and is the Midwest’s most up-and-coming artist. CityWide Poets, a Detroit-based poetry troupe composed of high school students, will accentuate Vanguards with a main stage performance. Drop-in workshops, student performances, and collaborative activities with other student led organizations will round out the event. After the event, we will create a portfolio of visual, spoken, and written expressions of voice shared at VANGUARDS 2015.