Attending the PYBY Gallery Show at Casa Frela in Harlem: PYBY participants Vorachon Roongsri, who designed five gowns for the show, and Ashley Brissett, who modeled them, with guests Chris Helm and Gail Elberg.

The All Stars’ newest youth program, The Production of Youth By Youth (PYBY), has developed significantly this fall.  PYBY offers young people a chance to develop as producers, by showing them how New York City’s cultural industry is produced and organized.  A key component of the program consists of site visits to some of the city’s leading cultural institutions, where the young participants meet with and learn from top cultural producers.  This fall, students met with producers from Disney Theatricals, the New York Philharmonic, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Complexions Contemporary Ballet, Screen Media Films (a film distribution company), and JSM Music (a music production studio), while also learning important skills like public speaking and business writing.

Most excitingly, and unexpectedly, however, the developing producers of PYBY were offered the opportunity to produce their own event, an art show at the Casa Frela Gallery in Harlem.  During a visit to the gallery, owner Lawrence Rodriguez offered to display the artwork created by five PYBY participants, as well as dresses designed by another student who is an aspiring fashion designer.  The rest of the PYBY team was enlisted to organize the event, by writing up promotional materials, working with Lawrence to set it up, and recruiting guests to attend.  The students’ work was displayed at Casa Frela on Saturday, December 8, before one of the gallery’s weekly jazz concerts. About 25 people attended the opening, which was hosted by PYBY members, and one of the artists sold a drawing by the end of the evening. Rodriquez decided to extend the show through the end of December. All in all, it offered the class an opportunity to put their newly learned skills into practice, and the students rose to the challenge!

Fresh on the heels of their success at Casa Frela, the students are now charged with producing the PYBY Cultural Forum, a panel discussion that brings together cultural professionals whom the students have been meeting with New York City residents and community leaders to discuss the relationship between culture and the City’s various communities.  It is up to the students themselves to produce the event: they must invite the panelists, find the venue, build an audience, and run the event itself, which will be held on January 15.  PYBY is teaching them how to become builders of culture, providing them with the skills to get all different kinds of projects off the ground.  Soon after the semester ends with the Cultural Forum, a brand new group of students will begin the Spring Semester on February 12 and PYBY will continue to grow!

For more information on PYBY, contact Director Dan Friedman at 212-356-8450 or dfriedman@allstars.org.