Social Justice Theatre Collective GIRL BE HEARD Performs at Largest Conference in the World on Gender Equality
Vancouver, Canada — Girl Be Heard, girlbeheard.org, a New York City-based social justice theatre collective that brings issues affecting women, girls and gender nonconforming youth center stage, will perform at the largest women’s conference in the world, Women Deliver, June 3-5, 2019 in Vancouver, Canada. Girl Be Heard’s mission is to develop, amplify and celebrate the voices of female-identified youth through socially conscious theatre making. All spoken word poems, raps, and songs are written and performed by youth in our “feminist church program. The nonprofit is honored to share the stage at Women Deliver with sister gender justice advocates Angelique Kidjo, Femi Oke, Sophie Trudeau, and Tarana Burke, thanks to support from the Oak Foundation.
“Since its founding in 2008, Girl Be Heard has used theatre to inspire activism and shed light on gender and racial inequality,” says Girl Be Heard Founding CEO/Executive Director Jessica Greer Morris. “We are delighted to be performing at Women Deliver alongside our global community of artists, activists and advocates, to deepen our investment in this work.”
Girl Be Heard has devised three special performances that will take place throughout the conference. Chelsea Allison, Breani (aka Purrsian White) Camryn Bruno, and Halle Paredes who will light up the stage with their original spoken word poems, raps, songs, and choreography.
Girl Be Heard presents
The World Premiere of
Girl Be Heard Delivers
Producer/Director: Jessica Greer Morris
Choreographers: Breani (aka Purrsian White) and Chelsea Allison
Cast: Chelsea Allison, Camryn Bruno, Breani (aka Purrsian White), Halle Paredes
Girl Be Heard Performance Schedule
Monday, June 3rd, 2019 11:45a
Youth Pre-Conference Performance, 11:45a
Plenary Hall, Vancouver Convention Centre
Tuesday, June 4th, 2019, 5p
The MATCH Fund, Prospera and The Oak Foundation Performance
Room 114-115, Level 1, Vancouver Convention Centre
Thursday, June 6th, 2019, 3p
Women Deliver Closing Celebration Performance
Plenary Hall, Vancouver Convention Centre
For more information about Girl Be Heard’s performances, please contact Lauren Cabot Altergott, at lauren@girlbeheard.org or 847-612-2019.
ABOUT GIRL BE HEARD:
Girl Be Heard develops, amplifies, and celebrates the voices of young women through socially conscious theatre-making.
Girl Be Heard (GBH) runs after school and weekend programs in NYC and Trinidad and Tobago and centers youth as experts in their own lives. Our education curriculum and methodology is designed to create safe, fun, nurturing spaces for self-expression, grow individual talents (writing, rapping, acting, dancing, singing) and provide opportunities for youth to “be heard” at open mics and ensemble shows during their first year with us. Economic empowerment is central to our work. After one year, our artist/activists (ages 13 and up) get paid $15 per hour and up for devising and performing their original work.
As a theatre collective, GBH uses performance and personal storytelling to catalyze change around systemic human rights issues youth face around the world. We bring workshops and performances into detention centers, schools, refugee camps, domestic violence shelters, churches, community centers, theaters and countless other venues. We also work in partnership with the United Nations, the State Department, and local elected officials to engage and persuade decision-makers to advocate for, invest in, and create policies that protect, empower, and elevate the status of women, girls, and gender non-conforming youth. GBH has toured 9 countries (Bermuda, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Canada, Denmark, Switzerland, Taiwan, Trinidad, United Kingdom, and the United States). To bring Girl Be Heard to your community, please contact girlbeheard@girlbeheard.org.
ABOUT THE CAST AND CREW:
Jessica Greer Morris (Producer/Director) is a human rights advocate, playwright, performer and producer, listed in Newsweek as one of 150 Fearless Women who “shake up the world,” Jessica met her husband while starring in a New York Times-acclaimed one-woman show that she wrote, Searching for a Mensch. She has produced theatrical work off Broadway and for the The White House, United Nations, TED Women, US Mission, the NYC Fringe Festival, the Estrogenius Festival and taken Girl Be Heard to 9 countries. In addition to being an Aspen Institute Scholar, Ashoka Changemaker, and Hearts on Fire Visionary, Jessica is the recipient of the SELF Magazine’s Women Doing Good Award. For more information, go to her TED talk, I’m Sexy and I Know It or Women You Should Know. Prior to co-founding Girl Be Heard, Jessica received her Masters in Public Health from Columbia and helped to launch Man Up Campaign at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa with 100 young activists from 25 countries working to stop violence against women in their communities. Jessica lives in Brooklyn Heights with her husband and identical twin boys.
Breani (aka Purrsian White) is a young performance artist born and raised in Brooklyn. In 2013, Breani was cast in an Australian documentary film called “I Am a Girl” to represent a girl’s experience in the USA. The film crew followed her life and the beginning stages of her music career. Currently, she is still performing and writing music while being the CEO of her own beauty business called “Pursuit of Beauty.”
“I developed a strong love for writing as a teenager to express my jumbled up emotions. However, I was not comfortable letting people hear my writing. After joining Girl Be Heard in 2011 they gave me the platform to perform my songs and break out of my shyness.”
—Breani (aka Purrsian White), Age 23, Girl Be Heard Member Since 2010
Halle Paredes is a half-Filipino singer/songwriter attending Connecticut College as a junior studying public health and international politics. Her work as a performer is inspired by mental health advocacy, gender equality, human rights, and global health and education. Halle joined Girl Be Heard in April of 2013 and has loved every minute of it. Among many, some of her favorite performance opportunities through the organization include writing the anthem “Words on Fire” for the Malala Fund and meeting the incredible Malala Yousafzai and her father Ziauddin Yousafzai, and performing at UNICEF’s International Day of the Girl/Child 2015, and performing for Lin-Manuel and Luis Miranda when they received Girl Be Heard’s inaugural Fairy Godfather awards.
“I joined Girl Be Heard in 2013 as a quiet 13 year-year-old struggling with anxiety and depression. Girl Be Heard gave me a safe space to develop not only as a writer and performer but a global citizen. The opportunities I’ve had through Girl Be Heard have provided me with a purpose and conviction to use my voice to inspire change. Nearly 8 years later, I credit much of my drive for activism and social change with my experiences in Girl Be Heard. Girl Be Heard turned my whisper into a roar, and I’m eternally grateful to Jessica and the other powerful womxn in this incredible organization.”
— Halle Paredes, Age 19, Girl Be Heard Member Since 2013
Camryn Bruno is a spoken word poet, teaching artist, restorative justice leader and activist in New York City. She is also the NYC Youth Poet Laureate of 2019, The First Citizens National Poetry Slam Champion (2017) and The Ms. Tobago Heritage Personality (2017). Camryn is also a theatre company member with Girl Be Heard, on the Youth Leadership committee with Urban Word NYC and a CUNY Junior.
“At first, I considered myself an artist because I wanted a safe outlet to express myself in the most creative ways possible – painting, singing, dancing and poetry. Art is not only for the young ones. I am an activist/artist because we are the ones who really do the work in moulding the positive change that we want to see in the future.”
— Camryn Bruno, Age 19, Girl Be Head Member since 2018
Chelsea Allison is an actor/poet/playwright from New York. She is a member of the 2017 Urban Word Slam Team which placed in the semi-finals at the 2017 Brave New Voices slam poetry competition. She is a company member of viBe theatre company and Girl Be Heard. She is currently pursuing her BFA in Dramatic Arts at The New School of Drama. Her mission is to tell truthful stories that honor the women that got her here. Chelsea is 19 years old and has been a member of Girl Be Heard’s theatre collective since 2016.
ABOUT WOMEN DELIVER:
The Women Deliver 2019 Conference will take place 3-6 June 2019 in Vancouver, Canada and will be the world’s largest conference on gender equality and the health, rights, and well being of girls and women in the 21st century. It will serve as a catalyst for advocates working to achieve a more gender equal world.
More than 7,000 world leaders, influencers, advocates, academics, activists, young people, and journalists from over 160 countries will flock to Vancouver to accelerate action on gender equality and drive progress for girls and women.
The conference will present new knowledge, promote world-class solutions, and engage a broad spectrum of voices. It will be much more than a gathering in a conference center, with more than 100,000 people engaging in a global dialogue on the issues through satellite events across the globe and through the virtual conference, WDLive.
Who we expect:
- 6,000–7,000 attendees
- 2,500 organizations
- Over 160 countries
- 1,500 young people
- 500 journalists
- 100,000 Virtual & Satellite Event Participants
- 1,000+ Private sector representatives from multiple industries
- UN Agencies and government representatives including ministers and parliamentarians from 50+ countries
SAMPLE INSTAGRAM:
#GirlBeHeard is sharing the @women_deliver stage with @sophiegregoiretrudeau, @angeliquekidjo, @chmba_, & @Katja_Iversen at #WD2019! #ThePowerOf #DELIVERFORGOOD #YOUTHVOICES #UNwithCivilSociety #UNCSC2019 #UNDGCYOUTH
SAMPLE FACEBOOK:
#GirlBeHeard is sharing the Women Deliver stage with Sophie Trudeau, Angelique Kidjo, DJ Chmba & Katja Iversen at #WD2019! #ThePowerOf #DELIVERFORGOOD #YOUTHVOICES #UNwithCivilSociety #UNCSC2019 #UNDGCYOUTH
SAMPLE TWEETS:
#GirlBeHeard is sharing the @womendeliver stage with #SophieTrudeau, @angeliquekidjo, @chmba_, & @Katja_Iversen at #WD2019! #ThePowerOf #DELIVERFORGOOD #YOUTHVOICES #UNwithCivilSociety #UNCSC2019 #UNDGCYOUTH
HASHTAGS
#GirlBeHeard
#WD2019
#WeDeliver2019
#ThePowerOf
#DELIVERFORGOOD
#YOUTHVOICES
#UNwithCivilSociety
#UNCSC2019
#UNDGCYOUTH
#womenwholead
#YouthVoices
@GirlBeHeard – Girl Be Heard
@womendeliver – Women Deliver
@angeliquekidjo – Angelique Kidjo
#SophieTrudeau – Sophie Trudeau
@chmba_ – DJ Chmba
@Katja_Iversen – Katja Iversen
@MATCHIntFund – The MATCH International Women’s Fund
@Prospera_INWF- Prospera
@oakfnd – Oak Foundation
@undgc_cso – UNDPI NGO
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
New York City Contact: Lani Lee, Communications Manager
lani@girlbeheard.org or 323-423-7439
Vancouver Contact: Halle Paredes, Teen Press
Officerhparedes@conncoll.edu or 203-644-0511
#GirlBeHeard #GBHDelivers2019