The Greater Washington Community Foundation is excited to announce the performers for this year’s Celebration of Philanthropy. These performers represent some of the region's most impactful nonprofit organizations supported by Arts Forward Fund, a funder collaborative at The Community Foundation which provided nearly $3 million in emergency support to help arts organizations struggling due to the pandemic.
Fella Morgan-Bey is a writer, spoken word performer, and published author. She has been noted and known as a poet and spoken word performer who brings her original prose and pieces to life on stage based on her real life experience of living with “voices”. Fella is brought to you by BlackRock Center for the Arts, providing Montgomery County with access to inspiring performing and visual arts experiences for the last 20 years.
The East of the River Steelband provides a unique musical and high-quality arts experience for youth, centered on music education, youth development, and cultural heritage in Wards 7 and 8. It is a year-round program with instruction on Mondays and Wednesdays serving youth 12-18 in communities with limited enrichment programs. The program incorporates the history and cultural aspects of the traditional steelpan music of Trinidad and Tobago. It serves communities east of the river where youth participants reside, providing consistent entertainment and cultural events that explore contributions to the local community and globally.
EducArte is a Prince George’s County-based arts education nonprofit that offers music, dance, and arts programming centering around encounters of African, indigenous, and European cultures in the Americas, especially in Latin America. EducArte focuses on community building and cross-cultural communication to foster a vibrant and diverse cultural arts community that encourages artist and audience collaboration. For the Celebration, EducArte presents Sahel and Gerson Lanza and Friends.
Sahel represents the African diaspora by playing music such as Senegalese mbalax, Caribbean zouk, samba, reggae, and salsa. Led by multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Jean Francis Varre, the band creates a "canvas" of African rhythms that is inspired by tradition and dedicated to the progress of music that moves the world. Its music demonstrates how music, dance, and rhythms from across the African diaspora come together to show the prosperity and richness of African diasporic communities on both sides of the Atlantic.
Gerson Lanza and Friends invites you to embark on a journey of dance, music, and song. The duo is composed of Ana Tomioshi and Gerson Lanza, two leading tap dance artists in the area. Together they shed light on the versatility of tap dance as they riff from one piece to another. This performance will feature jazz giants' music, accompanied by eclectic dancing.
Life Pieces To Masterpieces presents an art gallery displaying its students' artistic masterpieces that tell profound and inspiring stories. Founded by DC-native artist Larry Quick in 1996, Life Pieces To Masterpieces’ mission is to use artistic expression to develop character and leadership, unlock potential, and prepare Black boys and young men to transform their lives and communities.
Words, Beats & Life (WBL) presents a slam poetry performance by Elana Ernst, Kashvi Ramani, and Sarina Patel, three youth poet laureates from DC, Arlington County, and Montgomery County. DC’s longest running Hip-Hop based arts educational nonprofit, Words, Beats & Life provides a wide range of workshops, after school programs, concerts, and festivals to advocate for the transformative power of hip-hop culture in all its forms.