Pamela A. Lewis (center) with young All Stars.

The All Stars Project’s performance programs involved record numbers of young people in 2003, not only in New York City, but also in six cities across the country.

In the year ahead, while ASP will continue our policy of broad outreach and recruitment of children and teens into our performance programs, we plan a deepened focus on promoting and developing our program alumni by offering training workshops at our new national center on 42nd St. where youth can “step up” and learn more about the art of building growthful environments. This focus reflects the desire and commitment of the young people themselves: they’re asking to do more.

A Season of Growth
The All Stars Talent Show Network will kick off its first cycle of activities in ’04 at Thomas Jefferson High School in Brownsville, Brooklyn. An audition in January will be followed by two performance workshops, and then two shows, in February and March. We instituted the double workshop and show plan last season, in order to accommodate the increasing numbers of kids coming out to ASTSN auditions. (Even a blizzard
can’t keep the All Stars from performing. Last December 6th, while snow shut down many of the city’s businesses and services, 172 of the 185 scheduled young performers came out to the ASTSN’s Canarsie show… all of them on time, prompting many in the 400-member audience that day to compare the ASTSN with the Post Office!)

I hope you will attend an ASTSN show this season. You can join us by coming Back to School (see Bring It On: All Stars Project launches Theatre for the Whole City
in 2004). The kind of creative effort that goes into these shows is amazing—the costumes and props, the choreography and the level of performance of our young people is beautiful. Credit for the developing quality of these events—as well as for the ever-growing quantity of performers—goes to our ASTSN alumni. These young adults, many of whom have been with the program since they were
little kids, have voluntarily taken on
mentoring others.

One alumnus, Matthew Mabrey, 21, from Crown Heights, first started out in AS ten years ago in a dance group. He explains his dedication this way:
I’ve recruited kids in my neighborhood and all over Brooklyn, working with girls and boys, a lot of whom were troubled kids. Most of them had family issues at home and dancing was a way to escape. You can say I became a mentor and saved a lot of them from being caught up in the negative surroundings where we live. I wanted to teach them that there is more out there.

The reason I do it is simple—to keep developing. There are so many things out there to do and the All Stars is giving me those opportunities and I like looking back and saying—I did that, it was good, and I’m a part of it.

We honored Matthew, along with nine other inspiring representatives of this new generation of leaders, at the fourth annual Young Leaders for Change Awards ceremony in December. I’m extremely proud of their accomplishments. In the months ahead we will be providing workshops at our new performance center to teach young people directing, to support their management skills, and to enhance their understanding of AS creative learning approach.

We are also seeing an increased level of volunteerism and leadership on the part of our Development School for Youth (DSY) students. Says Jamila Carter, 21, another of our 2003 Young Leaders for Change Award recipients:

I’m not the same person that I was when I first met the ASP two years ago. Initially I thought that I was signing on for a youth program that would expose me to corporate America, but the All Stars has given me so much more.Since graduating from the DSY, I’ve done extensive volunteering with the All Stars, doing outreach, fundraising, helping to train incoming volunteers, and hosting Back to School. Participating in these events has changed my life in ways I could never have predicted.

Along with Dr. Lenora Fulani, co-director of the DSY, I am recruiting new students from 20 high schools in Manhattan and the outer boroughs. We’re currently planning a spring ’04 class of 60 students; and this summer we’ll be placing 100 graduates in summer internship positions at our participating corporations. Meanwhile the New Jersey DSY, under the leadership of Gloria Strickland, had 33 graduates this fall, and currently has an enrollment of 40 students for their spring ’04 class. We are meeting with the parents of the incoming spring class, to better acquaint them with our educational approach and to discuss ways they can support the program.

As you can see, there’s a lot happening in our communities and at our new headquarters on 42nd St. There are many creative contexts (and lots of room!) in which to do even more. With our young performers taking the lead, I’m looking forward to a developmental year ahead.