R.I.P. TO Dr. Donda West - Our "Soul Mate..."
Our deepest condolences go out to Dr. Donda West, the mother of Kanye West, who died suddenly due to complications that remain undisclosed at this time. She was 58 years old.

Dr. West served as the Chair of the English Department at Chicago State University, but retired to act as Kanye's manager. She was an English professor for 31 years.

Earlier this year, she released a book called Raising Kanye, which chronicled her journey of raising her son.

On a personal note however, I was fortunate to have met Dr. West and spend time with her over the course of a three day excursion out to LA, to train and promote our HELP program. Tone Walters and I were able to secure a meeting in the Sony offices in LA with Beverly Williams, Kanye's aunt and President of the Kanye West Foundation, as well as Dr. West herself. After our initial meeting, (which lasted for about 2-3 hours!), Dr. West immediately identified with our passion for education and fell in love with our mission; she even referred to us as her "soul mates", and decided to follow us on the rest of our journey (see pics below).

We have been in touch ever since, even up to this past week - I just received an email from Auntie Beverly, just to say Hello and to let me know that we were still in her and Dr. West's thoughts and plans for the Teacher Training Institute that the KWF was planning to build in Chicago in '08... So to hear this news is especially hard and depressingly sad for all of us. We here at Guerilla Arts wish the entire West family and friends clan our DEEPEST condolences, Dr. West will be greatly missed... ASHE! ASHE! ASHE!

-Gabriel Benn