Thank you to everyone who supported our mission to promote understanding, civic pride, intergenerational relationships and literacy through art and word!
The mission brought disparate people together to support strong work with and by urban teenagers. With so much news about St. Louis teenage youth causing trouble on the Loop, in Central West End and downtown, this day instead celebrated local teenage leaders — clear-headed, smart, bold, caring, articulate and determined.
Its not too late to add your support in any amount at storystitchers.org.
The concert gave audience members a look into the lives of Collective artists and youth living in different neighborhoods and experiencing very different lives in St. Louis. From a professional composer and pianist teaching at a private school, to a community college student challenged by living near gunshot riddled Fairground Park, to a teen girl dreaming of reaching her goals, to a Super Man father, to a flamenco dancer celebrating the broad diversity of St. Louis, to a fashion show of the new “classic” street styles by an aspiring teen designer, the concert toured hopeful and sometimes harsh contrasts of the current experiences of citizens of St. Louis through art and spoken word. It gave us snapshots of private lives with honest, raw and real texture.
We are grateful for the amazing professional artists who joined the Stitchers Teen Council for the 2016 Benefit Concert including Ron Robinson, DJ Pome, K.P. Dennis, Dadishi Buchannon, and Daniela Martin. We had a wonderful day together! A BIG heartfelt thank you to the parents, families and friends who came out to support the artists and teenagers! Thank you to the great volunteer committee that pieced together this strong effort and to the technicians who kept everything running smoothly.
Special thanks to all of the sponsors especially Kranzberg Arts Center and an extra nod to the business sponsors, Susan Sanders Block and The Designing Block and Susan Sauer and Rome West Realty, LLC for your leadership! Thank you to Grand Center Arts and Bruno David Gallery for retweeting @storystitchers tweets!
Congratulations to The Weight of Words Audience Favorite Teen Award First Place winner Emoni for Fly, to Second Place winner Elysse for Little Brown Girl, and to Taron for the 2016 President’s Teen Leadership Award!
A video of concert highlights and a curated album will be released soon.
Next public show is Not Another One! for the St. Louis Storytelling Festival on May 7, 2016, 11:00a at Kranzberg Arts Center! This free program will focus on the Collective’s work on gun violence prevention and is in partnership with the Celebrating Art for Senior Engagement Festival.
