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| What’s New at LeAp – 6/2/10
For LeAp’s 2009 – 2010 Catalog, click here For LeAp’s Winter 2010 Newsletter, click here Upcoming events
Fidelity FutureStage – Two Nights: June 9 and June 14 Come celebrate an evening of theater with two nights of Fidelity FutureStage on June 9 and June 14 as high school students, who have had the chance to work with Broadway professionals, bring their plays to the main stage. Honorary host Hilary Swank sets the tone for an unforgettable finale event on June 14 at The Imperial Theatre at 8 pm. **TICKETS REQUIRED – Please contact Allison@leapnyc.org if you’d like to attend** Students will also perform their plays at the Fidelity FutureStage Celebration Day on June 9 at Frank Sinatra School of the Arts High School in Queens at 7 pm. The students have attended shows including View from the Bridge, Billy Elliot The Musical, and Memphis. In addition, guest artists from playwright Michael Weller, actors Frankie Faison and Chazz Palminteri, and puppeteer Basil Twist visited the students to talk to them about their craft and careers. Selected student playwrights participated in an exciting roundtable with playwright David Henry Hwang (M. Butterfly) where they discussed what drives them and their ideas and challenges. In addition, Samuel French Publishing is releasing a volume of the student plays. LeAp Mounts Largest Student Exhibition in the History of NYC Parks Developed by LeAp’s Public Art Program in cooperation with NYC Parks & Recreation, this third-annual citywide exhibition seeks to empower young people to have a voice in their communities through the creation and public exhibition of art in NYC parks. **Watch Cindy Hsu’s coverage of the Union Square opening on CBS** **Watch CBS’s Eye on New York coverage of the program** You can view the public art tables in the following local parks through August: Staten Island IS 51R at Clove Lakes Park -- playground entrance along Clove Rd btwn. Cheshire Pl. and Bard Ave. IS 61R at Silver Lake Park -- near Environmental Protection bldg. behind dog run, entrance along Victory Blvd. and Eddy St. Brooklyn IS 347K at Fermi Playground corner of Starr Street & Central Avenue IS 291K at Irving Square Park at center of park near stage Park bordered by Knickerbocker, Wilson Aves, Weirfield, and Halsey Sts Queens P 9Q at Juniper Valley Park enter at Juniper Boulevard South at 78th Street Near to flagpole along walkway near playground P 75Q at Forest Park behind Queens parks headquarter at “Overlook” 80-30 Park Lane and Forest Park Drive near Sobelsohn Playground Manhattan St. Hope Leadership at St. Nicholas Park at Playground 133 St. Nicholas Avenue at West 133rd Street Academy for Social Action at Sheltering Arms Park, west of Amsterdam Avenue between 129-130 Streets Bronx Accion Academy at Crotona Park in front of Tennis House inside park along Crotona Avenue between Claremont Parkway and Crotona Park North IS 219X at Claremont Park at top of park near gazebo and park house. Entrance where Teller Avenue meets Morris Avenue (off of East Mount Eden Avenue) LeAp’s Public Art Program works with students from 10 NYC public middle schools to explore community issues, examine the history, practice and power of public art and ultimately create beautiful artworks using a school lunchroom table as a canvas—a symbol of student ideas and conversations. Students also met with distinguished LeAp guest artists Christo, Chuck Close, Tom Otterness, Dennis Oppenheim, Vito Acconci, Audrey Flack, Emma Amos, Alice Aycock, Keith Sonnier and Julie Heffernan. On April 29, the student artists presented their artwork at Union Square, where they were joined by Dennis M. Walcott (NYC Deputy Mayor for Education and Community Development), Kevin E. Jeffrey (NYC Parks Deputy Commissioner for Public Programs), Karen Rosner (NYC Department of Education Coordinator of Visual Arts), Chuck Close (LeAp guest artist) and Emma Amos (LeAp guest artist). Through public art, the students expressed themselves on important issues in their communities---gangs, teen pregnancy, healthcare, environment---through beautiful and meaningful works of art: 10 tables decorated with murals, collage and mosaic. The program has been endorsed by NYC Parks & Recreation, NYC Department of Education, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, and the Offices of the mayor and governor, and generously supported by HSBC Bank USA, NA, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, NYC Parks & Recreation, Mariano Brothers Specialty Moving, George P. Mills, Astoria Federal Savings, The Compleat Sculptor and KADKO. Watch CBS’ Eye on New York coverage here Watch CBS’ Union Square coverage here Watch NY1’s 2010 clip here Read the Queens Chronicle article here Read the News One article here Watch the NBC’s 2009 clip here Watch NY1’s 2009 clip here Watch NY1’s 2008 clip here NYC Finalists Win at the 4th Annual National August Wilson Monologue Competition Two students from Brooklyn and Bronx won it for New York City in the National August Wilson Monologue Competition at the August Wilson Theatre on May 3. The winners competed with finalists from Pittsburgh, Chicago, and Atlanta. Originally an alternate for the NYC competition, a student from Brooklyn Theatre Arts High School took home the first place prize with his nuanced performance of King Hedley from August Wilson’s King Hedley II. A student from Fordham High School for the Arts won second place for his keen interpretation of Holloway from Two Trains Running. The event featured a special performance by blues musician Guy Davis of the recent Broadway revival of Finian’s Rainbow. Special guests included Ruben Santiago-Hudson (Gem of the Ocean, Seven Guitars, Jelly's Last Jam), LaTanya Richardson (Joe Turner's Come and Gone), Keith Randolph Smith (Fences, Come Back Little Sheba, King Hedley II), Heather Alicia Simms (Gem of the Ocean, A Raisin in the Sun, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom), Chris Chalk (Fences, Ruined), Regina Taylor (playwright Crowns and Drowning Crow), Constanza Romero (costume design Fences, Gem of the Ocean, Seven Guitars, The Piano Lesson), Russell Hornsby (Fences, Jitney), Mykelti Williamson (Fences, "Forrest Gump," "24") and more. This program has helped to introduce hundreds of students to one of America's greatest playwrights with the hopes that August Wilson will live through our education system in the same manner and reverence as the works of William Shakespeare. Read the News One article here Read the Broadway World article here Read the Canarsie Courier article here LeAp Presents Annual Student Art Exhibition at the Citigroup Towers LeAp is currently collecting artwork from our residencies for our Annual Student Art Exhibition at the Citigroup Towers in Long Island City, which will run until the end of November. From Chinese Dragon Kites and a diorama of Coney Island to Native American quilts and animal masks, Leap’s Annual Art Exhibition runs the gamut of visual arts. In a NY1 interview, Alissa Ortega, a student from PS 120 in Brooklyn said, “It’s like a reward for all the hard work you’ve done.” Watch the NY1 clip here. LeAp Receives USDOE’s American History Grant to Provide Professional Development Workshops with Columbia University for a Bronx Charter School Collaboration with 11 Schools LeAp is collaborating with Columbia University’s History Department and the Carl C. Icahn Charter School’s ten charter school collaborative on a five year Fundamentals of American History Project grant funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Teaching American History program. This project is an extension of LeAp’s American History Comes Alive program. The goals of this lecture/hands-on project are to improve the instruction of American history by training teachers and increasing student achievement outcomes. The American history lectures are being given by Columbia University history professors Eric Foner, Natasha Lightfoot, Elizabeth Blackmar, Herbert Sloan, and Evan Haefeli and related innovative workshops and classroom modeling will be conducted by LeAp's Executive Director Ila Lane Gross, Dr. Deborah Everett-Lane, and LeAp teaching artists. The entire program includes lectures, educational strategy workshops, in-class modeling, summer seminars, panel discussions, and historical site visits. This project will introduce teachers to proven, effective approaches to teaching American history with topics ranging from Native Americans to the various presidential eras and the causes of the Civil War. This grant builds on the successful strategies that LeAp developed with funding from Project Save, a two year, federal grant in American History for 7th and 8th grade which linked social studies with literacy. PS/IS 188M and JHS 162X both reported dramatic increases on the statewide ELA tests as a result of the program. As Project Save made significant improvements in teaching and learning at the participating schools, this new federally-funded collaborative project seeks to do so as well! |
Leap's Executive Director Rings NASDAQ Closing BellLeap Executive Director Ila Lane Gross presided over the closing bell at NASDAQ, ringing in Leap's 30th year working in the New York City public schools. |
Leap Recognized for Exemplary Afterschool ProgramLeap Afterschool at 22 was recognized by representatives of the New York City Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD) as an exemplary afterschool program at JHS 22's Lights On Afterschool event. |
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