Who We Are
A public humanities institution.
Kind Kulture is a Los Angeles public humanities institution dedicated to storytelling as a way of healing, so that kindness, love, hope, and empathy prevail. We help people understand the human condition through lived experience.
Our Mission
To preserve survivor testimony and use storytelling to help people understand themselves — and one another.
Our Vision
A world where stories cultivate empathy, reflection, and human dignity.
Our Philosophy
Mirror · Bridge · Change. See yourself honestly. Recognize one another. Leave differently than you arrived.
Kind Kulture began with one survivor’s story. It is being built so that every person’s humanity has a place to belong.
Our Reach
Where the work lives.
Memory has no single home. The work began in Rwanda and travels wherever people are rebuilding after unspeakable harm, carried by survivors, educators, and partners across three countries.
Rwanda is the founding heart. Humanity is the destination.
The Founding Heart
Rwanda
Where it began. Umbrella Cinema Promoters launched in Kigali in 2012 with Women's Potential in Cinema; the memory of the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi, and the annual Kwibuka commemoration, remain the institution's heartbeat.
Where the Institution Is Built
United States
Los Angeles is home to the Kind Kulture Institute. Survivor-led programs reach schools, universities, and community rooms nationwide, in partnership with institutions including the Museum of Tolerance.
A Partner in Peace
Colombia
Alongside communities and partners building memory and reconciliation after long conflict, extending the work of storytelling as a way of healing across the Americas.
The Founders
Dydine & Alex Anderson.
Photograph · Dan McMahon
Dydine Umunyana Anderson
Founder & President
Dydine is the founder and president of Kind Kulture, a survivor of the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi, and the author of Embrace Life: How I Survived the Tutsi Genocide in Rwanda. She is a permanent speaker at the Museum of Tolerance and has carried her work to USC, Harvard Kennedy School, Talks at Google, and partner institutions in three countries.
She writes Dear Humanity, a weekly Sunday letter, and is building Stories in Color: A Human Dignity Exhibition and the Kind Kulture Institute.
Photograph · Arin DeGroff
Alex Anderson
Co-Founder & Executive Director
Alex Anderson is the Executive Director and co-founder of Kind Kulture, where he leads operations, communications, production, and strategic development. A filmmaker, producer, and communications specialist by training, he has spent more than six years building Kind Kulture’s digital programs, audience reach, and institutional infrastructure, and eight years embedded with the Museum of Tolerance’s Tools for Tolerance program, leading educator and leadership dialogue sessions across California.
At Kind Kulture, Alex has built the email marketing and audience growth systems that connect the organization with donors, educators, students, and community partners. He has produced documentary and promotional content across platforms that have supported Dydine’s speaking work, including a TEDx Cornell talk on cultural storytelling.
Where Dydine brings the story, Alex builds the systems that allow it to be told at scale.
Leadership & Governance
Carried by more than its founders.
An institution is only as durable as the people who steward it. Kind Kulture is guided by a board and advisory of survivors, scholars, and field leaders.
Board of Directors
Consolee Nishimwe
Board Member
Survivor of the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi and author of Tested to the Limit. An internationally recognized speaker who has addressed the United Nations General Assembly.
Sherry Horowitz
Board Member
Founder & President of Horowitz-Harnick Communications, a public-relations strategist with more than 25 years of experience.
Lynn Stuart
Board Member
A steward of the institution’s founding and long-term governance.
Gary Palmer
Board Member
Belfast born artist whose large scale public artworks have been shown at festivals across Europe, Australia, and the US. His paintings are collected by Catherine Zeta-Jones and Halle Berry, and he leads board development for Kind Kulture.
Advisory Board
Isabella Harnick
Advisor
Operations Manager at NYU Langone Health and Cornell-trained in healthcare administration.
Keilee Bentley
Volunteer Team Lead
Coordinates Kind Kulture’s volunteer team and supports grants and the work of building the institution.
Serena Newsom, MHA
Advisor
A steward of the institution’s mission and growth.
Alexa Natale
Advisor
A steward of the institution’s mission and growth.
Build With Us
Stand with us at the founding.
Founding Partners join us before the building exists. Your belief is what makes the institution happen.
Kind Kulture is the public name of Umuco Love, Inc., a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. EIN: 85‑0780571. All contributions are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.