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Dear Mama: Afeni Shakur, Mother of Rapper Tupac Shakur, Dies

Afeni Shakur at the premiere of “Tupac Res-urrection” in Hollywood, California in November2011. (Tim Goodwin / Star Max via AP Images)

Rap musician Tupac Shakur shown in this1993 file photo from the movie “Poetic Justice”.Shakur died on Sept. 13, 1996, the victim of adrive-by shooting. (AP File Photo)

by: Kristin J. Bender Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO(AP) — Afeni Shakur, thepolitical activist motherof slain rap icon TupacShakur who inspired herson’s work and strived tokeep his legacy alive, hasdied. She was 69.

The Marin County,California, Sheriff ’s De-partment confirmed herdeath on Twitter. Theagency said deputieswere responding to a re-port of a possible cardiacarrest at Shakur ’sSausalito home, but noother details were pro-vided.

Born Alice Faye Wil-liams, Shakur changedher name as an adultwhen she became politi-cally active and joinedthe Black Panther move-ment. She was pregnantwith Tupac in 1971 andincarcerated while sheand other Panthers facedconspiracy charges thatwere later dismissed.

As she bounced

from New York City to Bal-timore to California, fall-ing deeper into drugs andthe Black Panther move-ment, she enrolled youngTupac in several artsschools and programs,

where he honed the natu-ral musical and actinggifts that would makehim a hip-hop icon.

Afeni Shakur was aninspiration for her son’smusic and oversaw his

musical catalog andlegacy after his death.She was the subject ofTupac Shakur’s 1995 hit“Dear Mama,” and fanson social media refer-enced the song in tweets

and posts.Much of her life was

consumed with keepingTupac Shakur ’s legacyalive, including openingthe now defunct TupacAmaru Shakur Center for

the Arts in Georgia. Theproject was focused onhelping at-risk youth.

“Arts can save chil-dren, no matter what’sgoing on in their homes,”

Afeni Shakur told The As-sociated Press in a 2005interview. “I wasn’t avail-able to do the rightthings for my son. If notfor the arts, my childwould’ve been lost.”

A movie about TupacShakur’s life, “All Eyez onMe,” is set to be releasedin the fall with DanaiGurira playing the rapper.Afeni Shakur served asan executive producerfor the film.

Tupac Shakur died in1996 at age 25, the vic-tim of a drive-by shoot-ing. The killing remainsunsolved.

Conspiraciesabound about TupacShakur’s shooting, butthey were all a waste oftime to Afeni Shakur.

“We decided to dealwith the living. This is jus-tice for me,” she said in2005. “I need to do whatGod has put in front of meto do, and it ain’t tryingto figure out who killedTupac.”

ESSENCE MUSIC FESTIVAL 2016RETURNS BIGGER AND BETTER

THAN EVER!by Naomi Richard | The Austin Villager Newspaper

May 5, 2016 (NewYork, NY) – Time Inc.’s(NYSE: TIME) highlyacclaimed ESSENCEFestival, one of the larg-est consumer liveevents in the country,with more than 550,000attendees, revealed thefirst round of its all-starlineup of performers forthe nighttime concerts atthe 22nd annual celebra-tion, which will takeplace in New Orleans,LA, from June 30 to July3.

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