Chance the Rapper is once again making history, this time in a different way. The 23-year-old South Side Chicago rapper is one of the new board members at the city’s DuSable Museum of African-American History, the museum being named after Jean Baptiste Pointe DuSable, a Haitian trader of African and French heritage credited with founding Chicago in 1779.the museum announced Friday.
While praising all five new trustees and new chair Joyce Johnson-Miller, the museum’s president and CEO Perri Irmer could not help but be excited over Chance. “I’m not going to pretend I’m not super excited about Chance,” said Johnson-Miller. “It brings us his generation, right I’ve got three daughters, 21 to 34. They’re like, ‘Mom, ohmigod!’ So it’s good stuff. We’re ready to hit the ground running.”
The unusual election of a young pop star to the volunteer board — museum trustees tend to be older people from the business or donor communities who can contribute themselves and help bring in donations — delivers a jolt of excitement to an institution that has lagged behind many others in the city in fundraising and in meeting contemporary museum exhibition standards.
I'm honored to announce I have been made a board member of Chicago's historic DuSable Museum of African American History. I got big plans ??
— Lil Chano From 79th (@chancetherapper) January 6, 2017
Without going into detail, Irmer promised there will be more specific news of Chance’s role and influence coming soon; she said she hasn’t had a chance to sit down with him since the election because of his travel schedule. One goal she hopes to achieve this year: the addition of a young professionals board to help steward the museum, located west of Hyde Park, in Washington Park, at 740 E. 56th Place.Chance, and the other new trustees, including his father, former Obama administration aide Ken Bennett, and friend of the Obamas, Dr. Eric Whitaker were elected at a board meeting in November and began their tenure with the new year.
DuSable’s mission, with a renewed focus on education, fits in with Chance’s own activism on behalf of African-American communities, Irmer said.