An all-Black cast performs Heiner Müller's avant-garde classic
The promise of revolution comes to Jamaica in 1799, as the timeless themes of love, loss and betrayal collide in The Task by acclaimed German avant-garde playwright, Heiner Müller. The Task, directed by Gabrielle L. Kurlander, with music and lyrics by Fred Newman, is performed, for the first time, by an all-Black cast. The production also features a song by Billy Taylor and other music from the jazz and R&B repertory, as well as rap. Read Gabrielle's director's note here. To buy tickets, click here - January 22- February 21. Photo clockwise left to right: Peyton Coles, Sylenia Lewis, John Rankin, Keldrick Crowder. Gabrielle L. Kurlander was interviewed on Blakeradio.com by Deardra Shuler. Please click on this link to listen.
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On Monday, January 18th, 10:30am at the All Stars Headquarters (543 West 42nd St, btw 10th & 11th Aves.), young people of the All Stars Project of New York presented personal tributes to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. through dance, rap, poetry and song.
The young people participating in the event dedicated their performances to the people of Haiti. The program featured an appeal from three Haitian-American All Stars youth leaders, Jube Charles, Chris Elian, and Gregory Castin, who encouraged guests to contribute to support Haitian relief efforts.
Please visit this link and consider donating to one of eight reputable organizations that are providing immediate assistance to Haiti earthquake victims.
Are you a leader? Are you ready to be challenged, and to grow as a community organizer and manager of other youth activists? Then GOAL is the program for you!
The Get Organized and Lead (GOAL) Summer Internship Program is actively seeking applicants for the All Stars Project of New York, New Jersey, and the San Francisco Bay Area! The program supports a grassroots citywide organizing and fundraising campaign to expand All Stars' innovative inner-city youth development programs. Last year over 40 students, from as far as China, Romania, and the Philippines, came together to participate!
Energetic and socially committed college and graduate students are encouraged to apply to manage and lead an internship of their peers in All Stars' successful community outreach and fundraising. All Stars' programs use performance to help young people develop and grow. The program is 100% privately-funded. The GOAL program is a unique opportunity for students interested in community activism and performance. Please click here to read more about the positions available as well as to complete an online application.
All Stars Project youth leader Crystal Ferguson has been selected for the prestigious Winter/Spring 2010 White House Internship program. She is interning in the office of Presidential Correspondence. Crystal, 20 years old, grew up in East New York, Brooklyn. She is a graduate of the Fall, 2007 class of the Joseph A. Forgione Development School for Youth (DSY) and did her internship at Health Plus in the summer of 2008. She was honored, along with nine other young people, with the 2009 Young Leader for Change Award. At John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Crystal is a two-sport student athlete --she's on the women's basketball and cross country teams. Pictured to the right: All Stars celebrating Crystal Ferguson's internship at the White House (fourth from left, Gabrielle L. Kurlander, All Stars Project, President & CEO; fifth from left, Crystal Ferguson with All Stars youth). See story on Crystal in the New York Daily News.
On Sunday, January 10th, following the Youth Onstage! matinee performance of The Work/Play, Ellen Galinsky, President of The Families and Work Institute and author of the forthcoming Mind in the Making, Daniel Banks, Ph.D, theatre director, choreographer, and educator who has performed and taught theatre internationally from Europe to Africa to Israel and the West Bank, and Dan Friedman, dramaturg of the Castillo Theatre and the artistic director of Youth Onstage! participated in a Culture Talk moderated by Carolyn Kresky, three-time Emmy Award winning broadcast journalist.
Ms. Galinsky wrote an op-ed on education featuring a scene from the play which appeared in Friday, January 15's "Huffington Post."
The funny and powerful original new work, The Work/Play, grows out of an exploration by the young cast of work and play, and how they co-exist (or don't) in our lives.
The All Stars Talent Show Network held its City Wide Finale Show on Saturday, December 5 at Thomas Jefferson High School in Brooklyn. Over 100 young performers, all 1st place winners in earlier shows of the year returned to compete for the Grand Prize trophy and $1000.
The All Stars Project, Inc. honored Sheila Bair, Chairman, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), with an honorary "Doctor of Development" award for her vital interest in outside of school learning at a benefit luncheon for its flagship youth leadership program, the Joseph A. Forgione Development School for Youth at the Hilton New York.
"I'm very proud to receive this special award today. And I'm proud of what it represents -- working together to support our youth, helping them develop into productive adults and preparing them to build strong and vibrant communities not only in New York, but across the country," said Ms. Bair.
Operation Conversation was started in late 2006 by Dr. Lenora Fulani, as a grassroots experiment in the wake of the police shooting of Sean Bell in Queens. Since then, it has gained support from the New York Police Department and Commissioner Ray Kelly, from the Center on Race, Crime and Justice at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and from inner-city young people throughout New York. In October, 2009 the ASP Board of Directors supported the adoption of Operation Conversation as a program of the All Stars Project. Read a first-person report from ASP president and CEO Gabrielle L. Kurlander, who observed a recent Operation Conversation: Cops and Kids workshop.
Mission Statement
The All Stars Project, Inc. (ASP) is a non-partisan, non-profit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to promoting human development through the use of an innovative performance-based model. The ASP creates outside of school, educational and performing arts activities for thousands of poor and minority young people. It sponsors community and experimental theatre, develops leadership training and pursues volunteer initiatives that build and strengthen communities.
The ASP actively promotes supplementary education and the performance learning model in academic and civic areas.
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