C.A.L.L.E Youth Street Theater Program

CALLE(Creating Artistic Links to Liberation and Expression) is a bilingual (Spanish/English) street theater project designed to empower high school aged youth to voice their visions and opinions through theater in an increasingly privatized and segregated city. Youth work together to strengthen their acting skills, understanding of public political theater, and to develop an ensemble. The troupe is responsible for developing bilingual plays to draw attention to issues affecting them in New York City, incorporating personal stories and research from interviews.

Creating theater is a community event; it is public storytelling, generational question asking, and a time for reimagining our realities. With rapid changes occurring in New York City, it is essential for youth to have a space to reflect on and react to both the larger societal changes happening around them, and those that are happening internally. Immigrants and youth of color face particular discrimination from law enforcement agents, school systems, and from within their own communities. This project addresses the isolation and silence many youth experience in New York City by offering an opportunity to connect with other young people (and audiences around the city) by creating public art that reflects their shared experiences.

This project raises awareness of the diversity of experiences and struggles of young people growing up in New York City. It empowers youth to be open and vulnerable in a supportive environment and to learn to use the arts as a tool for personal expression and social action.

Check out the BLOG: www.callenyc.blogspot.com

WE ARE NOW ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS FOR THE 2009 WINTER THEATER SESSION WITH CALLE, in partnership with the Children's Aid Society in East Harlem!

contact Claudia at Claudia@artforchange.org

Participants are usually in high school, but we have allowed actors up to age 20 to participate in some circumstances.

This is a completely free program!

Art Belongs to Everyone

Art Belongs to Everyone is a year round program that strives to bring art to non-traditional spaces in East Harlem-El Barrio.  The program is coordinated by a diverse committee made up of members of the community, some of whom are artists, activists, public servants, construction workers, cultural workers, parents and youth.  The committee meets throughout the year to organize, curate, promote and give life to the exhibits, interventions, workshops, discussions and other events that occur in different locations.  Through this inclusive democratic process, the community takes ownership and accountability and ensures that all the benefits of the arts reach everyone in the community

ExploreArte

ExplorArte is a two-year cultural exchange program involving artists from around the world.  Most recently ExploreArte took us to Potosi and La Paz, Bolivia. Art for Change staff and volunteers worked with New York and Bolivian youth groups to provide a program which resulted in the creation of original theatre presentations in New York as well as short films and murals in Bolivia.

Photo:Bolivian youth with ExplorArte after

completion of public mural in Polosi, Bolivia.

Hacia Afuera

Hacia Afuera  is a public art festival in East Harlem-El Barrio, held annually.  East Harlem-El Barrio is a neighborhood with a long history of art, from theater to murals, to performance.  In recent years, gentrification has become a reality for many of its residents and thus Hacia Afuera is to be used as a vehicle to reclaim the public space be it a garden, a sidewalk, or walls in celebration of its cultural diversity.AfC is invites artists to take part in the festivities with dance and music performances, art workshops for kids and adults, site specific art installations and interactive media pieces.

Click here for more information!