Alliance Art & Community Youth Alvin Ailey Trip

Frank Bryant, III October 10, 2006

Alliance Arts & Community

309 Myrtle Avenue, Suite 102

Irvington New Jersey 07111 

Dear Ms. Smith:

I know how much the performing and cultural arts means to you.  Your commitment, hard work, and sacrifice ensure that the arts will continue to enrich the lives of children of all ages and adults too.  In light of this affection and commitment, please consider our request for financial support to provide 20 Irvington young people, ages 15 through 18, the opportunity to experience the magic of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater on December 9, 2006 at New York City Center.

An Afternoon with Alvin Ailey is the first collaboration between two community service organizations:   Art 4 Kidz and Alliance Arts & Community.  As you might expect, the primary purpose of our program is to introduce the performing arts to a group of urban youngsters who might not otherwise have the opportunity.  In fact, our AnAfternoon with Alvin Ailey is the first of what we hope will be many cultural excursions to performing arts and cultural events throughout the tri-state area for Irvington youth of all ages.  I am sure you can appreciate the excitement of attending a New York City theater performance and having dinner afterwards—especially during the holiday season.  The cool night air coupled with brightly lit store windows are like icing on a cake after a memorable theater performance.  In fact, I can remember going to see Alvin Ailey, Dance Theater of Harlem and Broadway performances such as Amadeus and The Phantom of the Opera as a youth with my family.  Attending those performances years ago instilled in me an appreciation for the arts that remains today and I would like to pass on my appreciation to the children in my community.  

In my family there were no cultural or economic barriers impeding my access to the arts; in fact my family encouraged it.  However, many Irvington children come from single parent and no parent households that are both economically and culturally disadvantaged.  Their caregivers, due to financial or other restrictions, cannot provide these children access to the arts—or worse their caregivers have little knowledge or appreciation for the arts themselves.  Also, public school funding for the arts and arts education have all but evaporated.  Consequently, opportunities for these children to embrace the arts on any level have all but disappeared.  And adding insult to injury is the fact that New York City theater ticket prices have probably doubled over the last 10 years.  Sadly, “a night out at the theater” is almost completely out of reach for most young people from my community and their families.  

Our proposed AnAfternoon with Alvin Ailey would, at least for one night, allow these youngsters to hurtle the social and economic barriers to the arts and deliver them from an environment that for some is filled with danger and hopelessness.  On December 9^th, they will be thrust into a world of vibrant colors, agile movements, music, and boundless energy and creativity of modern dance.  

The experience of seeing Alvin Ailey’s remarkable dancers performing at such a high skill level will in turn build their self confidence to excel at any endeavor of their choosing including the performing arts.  Seeing Alvin Ailey no doubt will be an experience these youngsters will remember for a lifetime and plant in them an appreciation for the arts that they can pass along to their siblings, friends, others in the community and, one day, their children.  I feel honored to be part of this experience.  Perhaps you will too!  

Please feel free to contact me with any questions you have about our proposal request at 973-373-8595.  Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

Frank Bryant, III

Alliance Art & Community

Proposal Request

Art 4 Kidz in partnership with Alliance Arts & Community has reserved 24 tickets to see the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater at New York City Center located at West 55th Street, between 6th and 7th Avenues in mid-town Manhattan on Saturday, December 9, 2006.  The 2:00pm matinee will feature performances of Memoria, The Golden Section, and the Alvin Ailey classic Revelations. 

Ten of the reserved tickets have been offered to (and accepted by) the Multipot Dance Company, an Irvington High School group, who specialize in jazz, swing, African, and contemporary dance performance and ten tickets have been offered to (and accepted by) a Teen Support group from the Irvington Family Development Center.  The remaining 4 tickets will be provided to adult chaperones.  All 20 children are between the ages of 15-18 and attend Irvington High School in Irvington, New Jersey.  

The proposal request is for $75.00 of the $1,488.00 to cover the cost of performance tickets, dinner, and a Retro Ailey Art T-Shirt for 24 participants.  This proposal does not request transportation costs which are not funded by the Junior League of Montclair-Newark, Inc.

Justification

Today, children in Irvington face an uphill battle on the road to becoming mature, emotionally secure and socially well-adjusted adults.  In their neighborhoods, they frequently encounter violent crime; are seduced by gang life and drugs; and travel about town through littered streets lined by too many boarded-up houses.  Living in single parent and no parent households these children often suffer from malnourishment, have limited access to health care and sometimes experience emotional and physical abuse.  During the day these kids attend crumbling, ineffective schools.  Many Irvington children come from households that are economically and culturally disadvantaged.  Struggling to make ends meet and due to a lack of education or language barriers their caregivers struggle to put food on the table.  Therefore taking time to provide for their child’s cultural enrichment is all but impossible—especially when the caregivers themselves have had limited exposure to the arts.  And since public school funding for the arts and arts education have all but evaporated, the opportunity for these children to embrace the arts on any level have all but disappeared.  

An Afternoon with Alvin Ailey will provide these children with an opportunity to break the economic and cultural bonds which have traditionally barred them from the arts and escape to world filled with color, creativity, endless possibilities and excitement.  The hope is that seeing an Alvin Ailey performance will inspire these children and instill in them an appreciation for the arts which will create not only a lifetime memory but an artistic appreciation that can be passed along to others. 

Costs

The costs for AnAfternoon with Alvin Ailey include 24 theater tickets ($768.00), bus transportation to and from City Center ($650.00); dinner after the performance ($240.00); and a trip keepsake in the form of a Retro Ailey Art T-Shirt ($480.00).

Checks may be drawn to the “Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation” and mailed to:

Mr. Frank Bryant

309 Myrtle Avenue

Irvington, New Jersey 07111

Additional Funding 

Supplemental funding for the An Afternoon with Alvin Ailey has been requested from the Irvington Chamber of Commerce Foundation, the Three Doctors Foundation, Irvington School District Teachers, and community and church leaders and Irvington citizens.  Thus far, approximately $400.00 dollars has been raised which covers almost a third of transportation costs.

For additional information or questions about AnAfternoon with Alvin Ailey, please contact Frank Bryant at 973-373-8595 or 201-303-5541. 

ART 4 KIDZ 

Art 4 Kidz is dedicated to the development of disadvantaged children through creative expression and cultural exposure.  Funded in part by the Irvington Department of Community Development and Planning and based in a commercial office space on Springfield Avenue in Irvington, New Jersey, Art 4 Kidz offers classes to youngsters, ages 8 through 18, in four disciplines: creative writing, visual arts, acting and filmmaking. 

Creative writing is taught by Paul Williams, a writer and artist originally from Chicago, and by Damion Clarke, founder and director of Art 4 Kidz, an actor who has appeared regularly on TV shows such as Law and Order, Hack and Third Watch. Clarke draws from his early days as a rap artist to teach creative writing. Growing up in Harlem he was one half of the duo, Live Wirez, which was sponsored by renowned film director Spike Lee. Clarke has also written short stories and drafted scripts for short plays and films.  Clarke and his wife, Angela, the program's co-founder and chairperson, have resided in Irvington since 1999. 

Art 4 Kidz visual arts discipline encompasses art history from cave etchings to modern works. Paintings and drawings on display from New York area-based artists provide enrichment and inspiration to the students. Local painter, Paul Jach teaches the class. 

During film editing class, students learn how to set up shots, use digital cameras and edit their products on state-of-the-art computers recently purchased for the program.  The acting class incorporates acting, writing, and directing skills which the children learn by making a commercial about a fictitious soft drink and producing a film, Movin' On, about leaving friends behind. 

Program enrollees hail chiefly from Irvington, with a large pool drawn from Berkeley Terrace School—a local elementary school. 

The combined creative writing, visual arts, acting and filmmaking program runs for 36 weeks in 3-month intervals. About 20 students are collectively enrolled in the classes, which are held on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays from 5:30 pm until 8:00 pm and on Saturdays. Depending on family income, fees range from $10 to $30 per class, for each course. 

Clarke said he knows youngsters are lured to the acting class in a quest for future celebrity, but "not everyone is going to be a star" he says.  Instead, Clarke says his program teaches that life skills are just as important as competence in the classroom.  Socialization skills are also enhanced during trips to the Poconos, Outdoor World, an Atlantic City area resort, and off-Broadway performances in New York City and other locations.  For more information about Art 4 Kidz, please contact Damion Clarke at 973- 374-4675 or 917-941-6236.

Alliance Arts & Community

Created in April 2006, Alliance Arts & Community is an Irvington-based community organization dedicated to uplifting the Irvington children and families through a series of educational, health, and arts/culture programs.  Founded by a group of former Irvington School Board members and current educators, the inaugural program for the organization will be the Alvin Ailey trip in partnership with Art 4 Kidz.  For more information about Alliance Arts & Community, please contact Frank Bryant at 973-373-8595.  

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater

The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater grew from the now fabled performance in March 1958, at the 92nd Street Young Men's Hebrew Association in New York. Led by Alvin Ailey and a group of young African-American modern dancers, that performance changed forever the perception of American dance. Today, led by Artistic Director, Judith Jamison, AAADT has gone on to perform for an estimated 21 million people in 48 states and in 71 countries on six continents.  The company has earned a reputation as one of the most acclaimed international ambassadors of American culture, promoting the uniqueness of the African-American cultural experience and the preservation and enrichment of the American modern dance.