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The Black Panther officially releases next Friday but efforts to provide tickets for free through the BLACK PANTHER Challenge are already underway. Photo:\u00a0Courtesy of Marvel Studios<\/em><\/p>\n Marvel is clearly not hurting for attendance as the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been a money-making machine with its 17 movies generating over $13 billion globally. But the release of its newest superhero flick, Black Panther, has generated a grassroots movement in cities across the country and a trending hashtag as community members push for young children to see the movie that is set for release on February 16.<\/p>\n The #BlackPantherChallenge was started by Frederick Joseph, a philanthropist and media representation advocate, who tapped the crowdfunding circuit to raise money to send children to see the movie for free.<\/p>\n \u201cMany of us yearned for the chance to be Batman or Superman, but only if he was black,\u201d Joseph wrote in an opinion piece in the Huffington Post earlier this month. \u201c\u2018Black Panther\u2019 gives our children the chance to dream those dreams.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt combats comments like the president\u2019s \u2018shithole\u2019 countries, a sentiment shared by too many other people in America. Director Ryan Coogler, who also brought us the powerful \u2018Fruitvale Station\u2019 and the triumphant \u2018Creed,\u2019 tells a story painted in blackness. It is black folks telling a black narrative through a black lens.\u201d<\/p>\n Joseph\u2019s effort has raised over $250,000 globally through over 200 campaigns in multiple countries. Long Beach is not untouched by the challenge.<\/p>\n Local artist, Senay Kenfe, started his own GoFundMe page with the simple goal of raising enough money to allow 50 kids from Central Long Beach to go to a showing of the movie for free. When he hit his initial goal he upped it to 100. Just days into his campaign, and with money trickling in, he said the time has come to be aggressive. He wants to hit 500.<\/p>\n \u201cWhy not use this opportunity to bring them somewhere positive and have them surrounded by positive things that can maybe make a good impression on at least one of them?\u201d Kenfe said of the challenge. \u201cTo me, if at least one kid walks away from it saying \u2018Wow, that was great, I got to see T\u2019Challla come back to lead his people through this moment of evil\u2019. If one kid can see that and say they want to do that for their community, it\u2019s mission accomplished.\u201d<\/p>\n This is not Kenfe\u2019s first foray into donating funds to positive causes. He said he routinely sells his work at pop-up galleries with a lot of that money often ending up with the Lydia House, a women\u2019s shelter hosted by the Long Beach Rescue Mission. He\u2019s a king of an advanced civilization and his story is not one of a demon hell-bent on redemption (Spawn) or a half-vampire vampire hunter (Blade). The positive imagery is probably just as important as the fact that a black man is playing the hero, Kenfe said.<\/p>\n \u201cNow, with Black Panther, you have it from the jump, this fictional country of Wakanda, it\u2019s the most technologically advanced nation in the world,\u201d Kenfe said. \u201cEveryone there lives to be hundreds of years old and it\u2019s almost like a modern paradise. Just to see where it\u2019s been able to transition into, it\u2019s been remarkable and that\u2019s why I placed it to be something important that these children, these black children get to see this movie. This is evolution happening before our eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n Vice Mayor Rex Richardson, a comic book fan himself, agrees that it\u2019s important for black children to see themselves represented in comics, but he said that the evolution that Marvel is undergoing is showing a greater shift in the superhero movie universe.<\/p>\n Richardson began collecting comics as a youth in Alabama, finding any way possible to make an hour-long trip to Tuscaloosa where the closest comic shop was located. He rattled off his collection\u2014which he has rebuilt since losing his childhood comics on a Greyhound bus while moving to California\u2014that includes Batman, X-Men, Superman Fantastic Four and a host of other storylines.<\/p>\n He pointed though to the wave of diversity sweeping not only upcoming movie releases but the artists behind comics. Richardson\u2019s friends and Long Beach comic artists Donovan Vim Crony and Hannibal Tabu are examples of people of color producing comics.<\/p>\n The recent replacement of Peter Parker with Miles Morales, a Black and Latino boy, as Spiderman, and the introduction of Ri Ri Williams, a 15-year-old MIT student who is set to take over the Iron Man suit from Tony Stark were other examples cited by Richardson. The vice mayor also noted that Long Beach rapper Vince Staples has a track featured in the trailer for the upcoming animated Spiderman movie Into the Spider-Verse.<\/p>\n \u201cFolks are really excited about not just Black Panther, but also the way that comics are sort of embracing diversity,\u201d Richardson said. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty cool that people can look to the comics and see a reflection of everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/senay-201x300.jpg\")
Kenfe (left) is distributing the money to four local elementary schools in Central Long Beach, an area of the city hit hardest by poverty. The only stipulation he placed on his efforts is that the tickets go to low-income students.<\/p>\n
\nThe four schools that are scheduled to benefit from the challenge (Lafayette, Whittier, Smith and Jackie Robinson elementary schools) are all in the city\u2019s Sixth District where Kenfe lives. He said that the Black Panther differs from previous Marvel superheroes who\u2019ve previously had stand-alone movies like Blade and Spawn in many meaningful ways.<\/p>\n