TOP 100 MAGAZINE

Al-Tariq Best
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Al-Tariq Best, founder and CEO of The HUBB Arts & Trauma Center, has spent the past 20 years transforming pain into possibility for youth across Newark, New Jersey. What began as a personal reckoning has become one of the city’s most trusted safe havens, rooted in the belief that the arts can heal trauma. HUBB, short for Help Us Become Better, operates through a three-pronged approach of entertaining, educating, and empowering Newark youth with programs that holistically meet them where they are.

 

The pivotal moment that redirected Al-Tariq’s life came two decades ago, when he and his sons witnessed a traumatic assault on a man in Newark where guns were drawn. In the aftermath, his son asked a question that changed everything: “What are you doing to be part of the solution?” With no immediate answer, Al-Tariq committed his life to becoming one. That promise lives on through The HUBB’s alternative therapeutic engagements, arts-based programming, and wrap-around services that welcome entire family units into the healing process.

 

Founded in 2006, The HUBB’s work includes music production, audio engineering, media training, and visual arts, alongside a community-based violence intervention program that trains justice-impacted youth into high-risk interventionists. Al-Tariq’s greatest accomplishment is building a safe-haven alongside the first youth-focused trauma recovery center and becoming the mentor he once needed, proving every day that the arts can heal trauma.

 

Al-Tariq Best
Founder & CEO
The HUBB Arts & Trauma Center
Website: www.ThatHUBBLife.org
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/al-tariq-best-8b1a4b22

Facebook: www.facebook.com/ThatHUBBLife

Instagram: www.instagram.com/thathubblife