The work began long before the institution.

Before Kind Kulture.

At four years old, Dydine survives the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi in Rwanda. Everything that follows began there.

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. Her work in classrooms has since reached more than 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 U.S. book tour follows, including the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York. 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.

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) nonprofit.

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.

Breathe Easy LA.

When wildfire smoke filled Los Angeles, Kind Kulture helped put 454 free air purifiers into family homes. Read the story.

The rebuilding year. Kwibuka 32.

A year of building toward Spring 2027: the board, the archive, partnerships and Stories in Color. 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 to the public.

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.