LOS ANGELES, CA – October 8, 2025 – Spirit Awakening Foundation hosted its ‘Voices of the Unheard’ 30th Anniversary Legacy of Love Celebration on Friday, October 3, at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles.
Spirit Awakening, founded by CEO Akuyoe Graham, celebrated the resiliency and brilliance of Los Angeles’ most vulnerable youth.
“This was a spectacular, successful event,” said Graham. “I’m so grateful to our supporters. We celebrated 30 years of doing good. To me, the celebration was about celebrating our legacy, which is love, love in action as an organization.”
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass recognized Graham’s work over the years through a proclamation presented by Yvonne Graham, Arts Manager II at the Performing Arts Division of the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs.
“Voices of the Unheard” is an annual theatrical performance fundraiser that showcases the written and spoken word of child detainees in the juvenile justice system.
This year’s event featured spoken word, poetry, song, dance, and storytelling, showcasing the unfiltered voices of vulnerable individuals.
Spirit Awakening is an art-based programming organization, founded in 1995, dedicated to helping young people discover their spiritual identity through creative expression.
With a mission to build character and raise self-esteem, one child at a time, SAF has served over 10,000 incarcerated and underserved youth throughout LA County’s juvenile facilities and schools.
The foundation believes that art is influential and can entertain, heal, transform, and inspire; therefore, artistic expression is a powerful means of uncovering and healing from traumatic experiences.
With the use of meditation/mindfulness practices, creative writing, visual arts, music, role-play, conflict resolution, and dramatic improvisation, we support abused, neglected, and underserved youth and young adults in realizing their value, self-worth, and dignity.
Celebrity supporters in attendance included Frances Fisher (‘Titanic,’ ‘Unforgiven’), and Debra Wilson (‘Cobweb,’ ‘Batman: The Enemy Within’).
About Akuyoe Graham
Award-winning interdisciplinary artist Akuyoe Graham is a multifaceted individual. Not only is she the founder and CEO of Spirit Awakening, but she is also an actress who has appeared in numerous independent films, television shows, and commercials. Her movie, Spirit Awakening, is set to hit the big screen in the Fall of 2025. She is also an author who wrote the best-selling book, “The Little Book of Transformation/7 Days to a Brand New You.” She also wrote the critically acclaimed one-woman play, Spirit Awakening, of which the LA Times wrote: “Lifts the solo dramatic journey to heights rarely reached…”
Graham, a tribal princess from her native Ghana, is a frequent TEDx speaker, both locally and internationally.
The journey to wholeness, which informed and enlightened Graham to her faithful and enduring nature, also empowered her to help alienated and incarcerated youth reconnect with their unique, authentic identities, beyond the circumstances of their birth and the stories of their lives. Through her Writes of Passage program, Graham’s students tap into a wellspring of creativity to write and perform their own remarkable stories of awakening.
As founder and CEO of Spirit Awakening Foundation, Graham oversees the implementation of her Writes of Passage and Visual Arts program in schools, juvenile halls and probation facilities throughout LA County, in partnerships with The Los Angeles County Office of Education, The LA County Department of Arts and Culture, LAUSD, LACOE; The LA Probation Department, and The County Board of Supervisors.
Graham is a former host for The Africa Channel. Her plays and essays have been used as course studies at Stanford, Berkeley, and USC.
About Spirit Awakening Foundation
Spirit Awakening believes that art is influential and can entertain, heal, transform, and inspire; therefore, artistic expression is a powerful entryway to uncover and heal from traumatic experiences. Through the use of meditation/mindfulness practices, creative writing, visual arts, music, role-playing, conflict resolution, and dramatic improvisation, we support abused, neglected, and underserved youth and young adults in realizing their value, self-worth, and dignity.
Since its inception in 1995, SAF has been a pioneer in developing and offering restorative, trauma-informed, prevention, and intervention programs to underserved, incarcerated, and system-involved youth in Los Angeles County.
As an organization founded and run by Graham, SAF exists to stand up against racism, inequality, and injustice, while offering young people the tools and techniques needed to live in a more inclusive, just, and safe world.