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GIRL BE HEARD TAKES ACTIVISM TO THE STAGE WITH MAINSTAGE PRODUCTION ORGANIZE: TAKE TO THE STREETS! MAY 23-24
Giving Young Women of Color and Gender-Expansive Youth a Platform for Dialogue and Social Change
NEW YORK, April 17, 2023 –Girl Be Heard, a Brooklyn based organization that amplifies and celebrates the voices of girls and young women of color through socially conscious theatre-making, storytelling and performance, presents their 2023 Mainstage Performance, Organize: Take to the Streets!, May 23 and 24 at Symphony Spaces’ Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theater. Written and performed by an international cast of nine professional young “artivists”, ages 17-24, the work features original music and personal narratives of racial justice, gender equity, environment justice and global solidarity, and other issues facing our communities today and how to mobilize a movement to make change.
Directed and choreographed by Dr. Angela Fatou Gittens, Organize: Take to the Streets! is connected to this year’s Girl Be Heard themes of activism and social action, and is a reflection of the anchoring topics integral to Girl Be Heard and explored by the Company throughout the year. The Company will express the many phases and stages of what it takes to organize a movement, a social change, and even a revolution when masses of people become dissatisfied with their current conditions. Led by a cast of creative actors, poets, singers, and dancers, Organize: Take to the Streets! highlights—in the name of social justice—not only what we see when organizers take to the streets; but the hard and strategic work that comes before calling on the general public to mobilize. By highlighting the personal interests of each cast member and connecting artistic practices to social issues, this production showcases the transformative power of artivism, and the importance of amplifying underrepresented voices.
“From justice in the streets of the U.S. South & Soweto to the streets of the Bronx to farmers’ fields in India to the parking lots of U.S. hospitals with poor Black maternal health services, GBH’s talented Company Members reflect on the emotional journeys of participants in movements past and present while helping audience members to develop an awareness of these historical moments,” notes Fatou-Gittens.
“In keeping with this year’s company theme “Organize: Take to the Streets”, we aspire to provide the audience with a deeper awareness of the historical moments in social and justice movements, fostering a greater understanding of the common threads, struggles, and structural patterns that unite movements across the globe,” adds Robin Jenkins, Interim Executive Director of Girl Be Heard. “This performance provides a unique glimpse into the behind-the-scenes preparation and emotional labor involved in a movement. The performers, who are girls and gender non-conforming youth from underrepresented communities in New York, offer their own experiences and insights to illuminate the lived realities of those who are so often silenced.”
PERFORMANCE and TICKET INFORMATION
Organize: Take to the Streets! will be performed May 23 and 24 at 7:00 p.m.
Tickets start at $10 and are available at https://girlbeheard.org/mainstage2023
VENUE INFORMATION
The Leonard Nemoy Thalia Theater at Symphony Space is located at 2537 Broadway at 95th Street on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, and accessible by the 1, B and C trains to 96th Street.
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 free after-school and weekend programs in NYC and Trinidad and Tobago and centers youth as experts in their own lives. Their education curriculum and methodology are 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 throughout the year. As a creative collective, GBH uses performance and personal storytelling to catalyze change around systemic human rights issues youth face around the world, while bringing workshops and performances into detention centers, schools, refugee camps, domestic violence shelters, churches, community centers, theaters, and countless other venues. With economic empowerment is central to their work, GBH also works 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 nine countries (Bermuda, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Canada, Denmark, Switzerland, Taiwan, Trinidad, United Kingdom, and the United States). Girl Be Heard’s special advisors and supporters include Lin Manuel Miranda, Danai Gurira, Alicia Keys, Gloria Steinem, Jackie Shapiro, among others.
To bring Girl Be Heard to your community, please contact girlbeheard@girlbeheard.org.
Please visit the website www.girlbeheard.org to sign up for the mailing list and learn more about the organization’s mission. Follow Girl Be Heard across social media platforms @GirlBeHeard to stay up to date on all things Girl Be Heard.
This program is made possible in part by funding from the New York State Council on the Arts & the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and the National Endowment for the Arts and additional support by Anna Maria and Stephen Kellen Foundation, Axe-Houghton Foundation, Brooklyn Community Foundation, Black Seed Fund, Common Sense Fund, Consolidated Edison, Find Your Light Foundation, Grantmakers for Girls of Color, Miranda Family Fund, New York Community Trust, Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation, Pinkerton Foundation and the Tides Foundation.