A foundation has been set up in memory of Max Boomgaarden Cook to provide young people with opportunities to follow their creative dreams.
Max, from Brixton, died aged 19 in a bus crash in Thailand last June, along with two of his friends Conrad Quashie and Bruno Melling-Firth. The group had been travelling on their gap year before starting university.
The MBC Foundation aims to support two community organisations, Whippersnappers and the Lambeth Cricket Academy, with which Max had a close relationship as a child and teenager.
The foundation will also provide opportunities to 17-25 year-olds to travel the world through volunteering placements and research projects, as well as offering young people the chance to create their own projects and fundraise through MBC Foundation. And it will honour Max’s aspirations by supporting young talent in hip-hop music.
Max’s biggest hero was J. Dilla and he had a deeply held belief that independent UK hip hop talent should be fostered in a world where hip hop music is otherwise subject to the whims of commercial interests.
The MBC has several events lined up in the coming weeks to celebrate the launch and remember Max. Next Sunday 17 June, a memorial cricket day hosted by the Lambeth Cricket Acedemy is being held at Alleyn’s school. ‘Fire of Babylon’, a brilliant documentary about the West Indian cricket team in the 1970s, will be screened as part of the event. The full programme of events can be found here and £5 tickets can be booked here.
On July 15, a launch event at Brockwell Lido, where Max was a lifeguard, will introduce the foundation to the community and reveal plans for supporting south London youth. Chuka Umunna MP will give a public address and there’ll be music from local and London hip hop talents. The line up for the event has not been revealed yet and tickets will be on sale at a later date, so watch this space.
