The work began long before the institution.

Umbrella Cinema Promoters · Kigali.

Dydine founds Umbrella Cinema Promoters in Kigali, the earliest expression of the work that would become Kind Kulture.

Women’s Potential in Cinema.

Umbrella Cinema Promoters launches publicly with the inaugural Women’s Potential in Cinema workshop, training twenty young Rwandan women filmmakers in Kigali.

The classroom work begins.

Dydine begins speaking publicly about her survival of the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi. The first decade-long body of educational work begins, eventually reaching over 100,000 students.

The first book.

Dydine’s memoir, Embracing Survival, is published and launched in September 2016 at the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles. A United States book tour follows, with appearances including the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City. The book is later re-released as Embrace Life, with a Spanish edition, Abrazar La Vida.

Umuco: the podcast.

The Umuco Podcast is launched as a long-form cultural and human-dignity conversation series. It becomes the first audio archive of the work and an institutional asset that continues today.

The institution is founded. I Am You begins.

Dydine Umunyana Anderson and Alex Anderson found Kind Kulture (originally Umuco Love, Inc.) as a Los Angeles 501(c)(3) public humanities institution.

In the same year, I Am You launches as the institution’s first standing program, a survivor-led storytelling series rooted in shared humanity.

Wellness Wednesday.

A weekly gathering on cultural memory, wellbeing, and survivor-led practice. One of the longest-running rhythms of the institution’s middle years.

Breathe Easy LA.

A Los Angeles convening on breath, presence, and the body as an archive of memory. The most recent program rhythm before the rebuilding year began.

The rebuilding year. Kwibuka 32.

The institution is being rebuilt deliberately for the Spring 2027 founding launch: board, advisory, archive, partnerships, and Stories in Color all coming into shape. Kwibuka 32 is observed publicly in Los Angeles.

The institutional launch.

Stories in Color: A Human Dignity Exhibition opens in Los Angeles. The Kind Kulture Institute is introduced publicly at scale for the first time.

The Kind Kulture Institute opens.

After three to six years of touring, Stories in Color returns to Los Angeles. The Kind Kulture Institute opens its permanent doors.