The Frances Davis/Harlem Stage Arts Education Program is based on the idea that arts education plays a key role in developing a young person’s creativity, self-image, and appreciation of diverse cultures. Throughout Harlem Stage’s 40-year history, we have served over 400,000 public schoolchildren. We target school-age children and young adults who lack easy access to live performances and who attend schools that lack sufficient funding for arts programs. The Education Program seeks to augment cultural literacy, foster respect for ethnic and cultural diversity, cultivate young people to be future audiences, and engage families in the learning experience.
Harlem Stage hosts performing arts workshops at partner schools, led by Harlem Stage artists and Teaching Artists, and invites students to witness the transformative works performed at the Harlem Stage Gatehouse 100% free of charge.
STRIVE 4 JOY is Harlem Stage’s arts education curriculum that serves as a guide for our Teaching artists when creating their lesson plans and facilitating sessions/residencies at our community partner sites. All of Harlem Stage’s Education & Community Engagement programming bolsters a participant-centered environment that affirms their racial and cultural identities, develops confidence in independent and collaborative exploration, and empowers the participants to be current and future agents of social change.
STRIVE 4 JOY is also an acronym that means:
Speak out against racism and anti-blackness
Test the limits of our creative comfort-zones
Respect ourselves and others
Inspire self-confidence
Visualize our perfect futures
Exit toxic relationships
STRIVE 4 JOY was created by Jordan Carter, Education and Community Engagement Manager at Harlem Stage.For questions regarding our Education programs and discount tickets for schools and organizations, please contact jcarter@harlemstage.org
Vibraphonist Nikara Warren teaching at Manhattan Village Academy (the school she attended)
Harlem Stage SBI at A. Philip Randolph Campus High School’s Urban Opera After-School Program
Location: A. Philip Randolph High School
Teaching Artists: Courtney Ross, Fatima Logan-Alston, Iris Hsu, William Butterfield, Emanuel Castillo, Careitha Davis, Veronica Simas de Souza Rosas, Selena Tornez, Thomas (Ricky) Alrick, Alicia Thompson, and Alyssa Velez
Duration: January 17, 2023, to May 20, 2023
Description: Harlem Stage partners with Sound Business, Inc. to support the Urban Opera After-School Program at A. Philip Randolph Campus High School. This program engages students in workshops with poetry, spoken word, and dance. Harlem Stage oversees the hiring and payment of all eleven dance teaching artists of varying cultural dance styles and one spoken work teaching artist. The teaching artists will teach dance with students over the course of 14 workshops and produce a culminating dance performance containing a multimedia element. Moreover, SBI will hold its annual Career Day on Thursday, March 16, 2023. Harlem Stage will engage panelists for an hour-long program including a talk and performance. Harlem Stage also engaged and paid Literature to Life for a presentation of Richard Wright’s Black Boy on Tuesday, January 10, 2023. Harlem Stage will offer a Theater Tech workshop for SBI students on March 3, 2023, to share the role of a production department within a nonprofit performing arts organization.
Harlem Stage STRIVE 4 JOY Arts Education Curriculum
Dates: April 2023 to December 2023
Description: Harlem Stage will contract “Consultant” to join Harlem Stage’s Education and Community Engagement Manager and two other consultants in a collaborative arts curriculum development process that builds upon Harlem Stage’s education framework, STRIVE 4 JOY, which is an acronym that means:
Speak out against racism and anti-blackness
Test the limits of our creative comfort-zones
Respect ourselves and others
Inspire self-confidence
Visualize our perfect futures
Exit toxic relationships
Following the retreat, the Education and Community Engagement Manager will work with lead consultants to produce white paper and deck detailing the STRIVE 4 JOY framework.
Harlem Stage WHEELS/CABD Residency
Location: WHEELS
Age: 1st grade
Teaching Artist: Ethel Calhoun
Dates: Thursday, March 2, 2023 to Thursday, June 6, 2023
Description: CABD teaching artist Ethel Calhoun will lead a 12-session workshop, including a culminating performance, with two first grade movement classes at WHEELS. Classes will be based in CABD’s Every Body Move curriculum which is also aligned with Harlem Stage’s STRIVE 4 JOY curriculum.
Harlem Stage Recording Artist Residency
Location: Exodus Transitional Community
Date: April 2023 to May 2023
Age: Adults 18+
Teaching Artist: DJ Relly Rell
Duration: Eight Weeks
Description of Project: Harlem Stage will engage Exodus Transitional Community members in Harlem Stage’s Studio Musician Residency facilitated by acclaimed DJ, audio engineer, and music producer, DJ Relly Rell. During the residency, participants will create original compositions that speak to the discrimination, prejudice, and violence that disproportionately affect people of color to uplift friends, family members, and allies. Using royalty free music production, participants will be guided by the facilitator to collaboratively create an album for distribution via SoundCloud and YouTube. Skills that will be taught include: structuring a song, recording properly into a studio microphone, and overcoming writer’s block to name a few.
Harlem Stage Garden
Partner: Mentoring Young Kings
Duration: March 2023 to April 2023
Description of Project: Harlem Stage will partner with A. Philip Randolph High School’s Mentoring Young Kings program to grow flowers in the garden placed at The Gatehouse. Seeds will be given to the group (two seeds per student) and Acey will give instructions on allowing the seeds to germinate in the classrooms. After germination, the students will plant them on Harlem Stage’s campus.
Harlem Stage presents Michela Lerman at Lower Manhattan Community Middle School
Location: Urban Assembly School of Business for Young Women
Date: Wednesday, March 1, 2023, to Wednesday, April 5, 2023
Teaching Artist: Michela Lerman
Description of Project: Harlem Stage presents an eight-week tap dance residency at Lower Manhattan Community Middle Schools taught by Michela Lerman. Michela has worked with Harlem Stage partners like SBI in previous years and has specifically requested to work with young women of color which makes this the ideal partnership. Themes that Michela’s sessions will touch upon include body positivity, self-confidence, and feminism. The eight week tap residency will culminate in a final performance at the school site for staff, students, and parents to attend.
Harlem Stage PRESENTS NIKARA WARREN AT MANHATTAN VILLAGE ACADEMY HIGH SCHOOL
Age: 9th to 12th grade
Date: Friday, February 3, 2023, and Friday, February 17, 2023
Teaching Artist: Nikara Warren
Description of Project: Harlem Stage presents Nikara Warren at Manhattan Village Academy. Nikara's Arts Education Residency will consist of two workshops titled Composing in Black and Dreaming in the Right Key. For Composing in Black, students explore the history of Black humans in America, and how it affected the sound of the music. They analyze specific harmonies and rhythms often used in Black music and discuss the impact of sampling on Black music culture. Dreaming in the Right Key involves Nikara and a quartet performing music centered around following your dreams and truly understanding why anything you want is possible.