We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Stephon Camp a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Stephon, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

Well, to start I’m the founder of Luminary Comity INC, Nonprofit Dinner Theatre Arts organization, brings awareness to youth issues in the community through theatre, food, design, and arts within a multipurpose space that comes alive. Developing youth artists of tomorrow. We started our unofficial journey back in 2013 as a dream job of mines in officially launched in 2021. Towards the end of the Covid pandemic. Taking risk on something that you’re passionate in tends to be very hard for most people. But with all of that was taking place during the pandemic, I decided to take the risk and start my dream job so officially coming into 2022 one of my main priorities has been to get this nonprofit organization off of the ground. One big achievement within the first six months of starting the organization is we’ve gotten full service health permits and our 501(c)(3) status. Non-Profit work is not easy and takes a lot of navigating, and to completely depend on it to pay the bills is another challenge in itself. To say that we’ve gotten this far is always an accomplishment when in Kentucky, the nonprofit world is oversaturated.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Luminary mission is to work to have open human potential, build community and enrich quality of life by engaging people in theatre, food, design, and art to reflect the wonder and difficulty of our time. The agency’s focus is to enhance the palette with a wide spectrum of experience of every flavour of art and build a connection with the historic latches upon them; as well as the open mindedness for innovation and necessary change.

Luminary started partly as a lifelong dream of a man that had always told his family that he would open a restaurant. For almost 27 year his oldest child was always reminded of the restaurant his father would open someday. The oldest child had dreams of his own to help the community through the arts. But always remembering the dream of their father. After being involved in many nonprofit organizations and going through the year 2020 that would go down in history. Watching many businesses and organizations close their doors temporarily and permanently. The oldest child decided it was the time to make his dream and fathers a reality. They got some of the amazing people that they had networked with over the years together to create what is so Luminary.

We work to create an arts and culture organization with social enterprise, sharing experiences centered around a commitment to create a more just society, marginalization, gentrification, and exploitation. Anti-racism and anti-oppression mentalities are essential in an ecosystem that has profited from the historic antecedent of plantation capitalism. In pursuing a synergy of art and service, we have delved into digital production and have become an interdisciplinary study for storytelling. Brings awareness to youth issues in the community such as poverty, homophobia, transphobia, ageism, racism, sexual health services and resources. Through theatre, food, design, and art within a multipurpose space that comes alive.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

One of the most rewarding expects of me being an artist/creative. Is that I work to change spaces and make change in the community through art for young people.

Have you ever had to pivot?

So my whole dream vision started off as a pilot and more owning a for-profit entity. But later, as life went on, and doing more work in the community with nonprofits. My vision turned more into having a Nonprofit entity..    

Contact Info:

• Website: YouAreLuminary.org
• Instagram: @YouAreLuminary
• Facebook: FB.com/YouAreLuminary
• Youtube: YouAreLuminary
• Other: https://marketwagon.com/vendors?id=6734&trk=bv47149h&wagonId=85