Music Festival Supports Travel Adventures Of Austin Youth
Music Festival Supports Travel Adventures Of Austin Youth
By Tia Carol Jones
Crystal Dyer founded Chicago Austin Youth Travel Adventures (CAYTA) in 2015, after losing her grandson to gun violence. She was called to do something to help the youth in the community in Austin. It was the place where she raised her sons as a single mother, but realized times had changed. She had the idea to get the young people out of the community so they could learn about opportunities and careers, with the hope, that kind of exposure would help them make better choices.
In those 10 years, CAYTA has served about 3,000 young people. Those young people go on cultural tours throughout the city and while on those tours, they are exposed to different cultures and career pathways. Dyer said through these tours, she wants the young people to realize that people, no matter their cultural background, are more similar than they are different.
“We all have the same dreams, we all have the same goals, there’s just different ways we get to build those dreams and get to those goals,” she said.
On Saturday, Sept. 14th, CAYTA will host its fifth annual Ghan-again Music Festival from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Austin Town Hall Park, located at 5610 W. Lake St. The funds from the music festival go towards CAYTA programs. Attendees can sample authentic Ghanaian and West African food, there will also be music performance and vendors. The event is free to attend, but donations are welcome, via https://givebutter.com/cayta.
Dyer is the owner of Gone Again Travel & Tours, a Black-owned travel agency in Chicago. Dyer first began taking young people to Africa in 2018. She took young people to Ghana in 2018 and 2019. They planned to go to South Africa in 2020, when COVID-19 hit. She said the Ghan-Again Music Festival began as a block party on the 5500 block of Chicago Ave., as a way to get people out after COVID-19. She said she wanted to do it to bridge the gap between Africans and African Americans, and it wasn’t something that was already being done on the West side. She said one of the youth in CAYTA came up with the name for the festival.
When Dyer first started CAYTA, she would use her travel agency as the site for events, hosting speakers and activities for the young people in the program. She wanted the organization to be full-service, raising funds not only for the young people to travel, but to also provide essentials to the families of the participants and others in the community.
Dyer said she has been able to watch the young people grow throughout the years they have participated in the program. She said some of the young people who have participated in CAYTA have graduated and have full time careers. Some of the former participants even work in the travel industry at the airport. Those past participants are also spreading the word about the program to their families and friends.
“I gave them the tools so they could participate here, but they could go into their future and help somebody else,” she said.
In addition to CAYTA, Dyer also has Crystal’s Roadmap to Discovery, a genealogy project where young people trace their own family’s history, which takes place in October.
For more information about CAYTA, visit www.caytaworld.org.
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