Erykah Badu Giving Concert Funds To Detroit Rape Kit Project
She is aiding in the fight to process the city’s abandoned rape kits.
Erykah Badu will be donating the proceeds from her August 12 show at Detroit's Chene Amphitheater Park to the African American 490 Challenge. According to The Detroit Free Press, the money going to the 490 Challenge will go to a partner company called Enough SAID that is raising funds to test more than 11,000 rape kits found in the Detroit Police Department's storage seven years ago. Each kits costs $490 to test, hence the name. The Free Press reports that around 10,000 kits have been tested and money will now be going to finishing and looking into the results.
$5 from each ticket from Badu's show will go towards the cause as well as proceeds from a pre-show party that run attendees $100 and the funds from a $1000 VIP post-show bash with Badu.
Kim Trent, president of the 490 Challenge, said of Badu's involvement, "It should come as no surprise that an artist with Erykah Badu's impressive history of social consciousness would join forces with the black women leaders of Detroit to address this important social issue."