“Kids N Motion” at the April 19 Bay Area All Stars Talent Show.

On February 20, Latham and Watkins, a national corporate sponsor of the All Stars Project, hosted a reception for the Bay Area All Stars in their San Francisco offices. Donors, volunteers, young people, parents and business leaders came together to celebrate and further cultivate the new partnership being forged to expand the All Stars in the Bay Area.

On March 31, the Bay Area All Stars youth performers were proudly represented at the All Stars Project’s Lincoln Center first National Gala by 15 year-old singer Anysa Islam.  Anysa was part of the national talent show segment of the event, along with performers from Chicago, New Jersey and New York. Bay Area business leaders from Latham & Watkins, Cisco Systems and Shaklee Corporation, as well as Bay Area All Stars director Joyce Dattner and Bay Area youth manager, Elouise Joseph, were among the 450 gala guests.

The Bay Area All Stars held its 13th Oakland audition on March 15, performance workshop on April 5 and talent show on April 19, all held at Historic Sweet’s Ballroom in downtown Oakland.  The show was dedicated to the memory of Markeese Edwards. Eighteen year-old Markeese, who had auditioned for the All Stars for the first time, was shot and killed in West Oakland on his way to the store the next afternoon. Markeese’s mother invited the All Stars to speak at his funeral to let the young people attending the funeral know that Markeese had become part of a program that was giving youth an alternative to violence. Family members who performed on Markeese’s behalf at the talent show received a standing ovation.

Young people in the All Stars have been busy interviewing adults — their unsung heroines and heroes — nominated by young people to receive a Phat Friend Award.  Ten nominees have been selected to receive the award on May 14th, including Oakland City Councilmember Desley Brooks and Reverend Harold Maybery, Senior Pastor of Oakland’s First AME Church.

For more information about the Bay Area All Stars, contact Caroline Donnola cdonnola@allstars.org.