Erykah Badu Donating Concert Proceeds to Clear Detroit Rape-Kit Backlog

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Erykah Badu. Photo: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images

Erykah Badu is donating the proceeds from her upcoming Detroit concert to a nonprofit that tests the city’s backlog of rape kits, the Detroit Free Press reports. Five dollars from each ticket sold for Badu’s August 12 performance at the Chene Park Amphitheater will go to the African-American 490 Challenge, which raises money to test the 11,000 abandoned rape kits found in a Detroit police warehouse in 2009. (Each test costs $490.) Badu will also donate the proceeds from the concert’s $100 “pre-show reception” and $1,000 “VIP reception” to the campaign, in what Wayne County prosecutor Kym Worthy calls a “phenomenal assist” to the cause. There are tens of thousands of untested rape kits across the United States.

Erykah Badu Concert Will Aid Rape-Kit Testing