Hip Hop at the Garfield Center ? This First Friday promises to be a true showing of ‘reconciliation in action’ at the Garfield Center for the Arts at the Prince Theatre. In addition to the Kohl Lobby open house in celebration the Reconciliation Celebration’s third anniversary, Kyle Couture and Malcolm Reynolds of Youth Xpression will be holding auditions on the main stage for the open mic session the last week of March.
Executive director Lucia Foster invites the community to stop in and participate in informal conversation and dialogues on diversity at this reconciliation redux. The vessel of stones from previous years will be in the lobby; members of the community may take a stone and cast it down, signifying the casting down of social injustice. The stones will later be integrated into the theatre as a monument of unity.
Couture and Reynolds created Youth Xpression to provide artistic expression for teens in the community. The two met at Washington College; Reynolds is a student there, Chestertown native Couture works in the college’s food service department. Couture, who is also a member of the Kent County Diversity Group, said over the phone that they are open to any kind of song, dance, spoken word, rap, or hip hop. He wants to show the positive side of hip hop and rap vs the negative, commenting that, “Rap has gotten a bad rap.” They are putting out a call to all youths in their teens to early twenties to come in and audition between 5:30 and 7:30 pm. People will be able to view the auditions from the balcony.
Those who pass the audition will be invited to perform at the March 28 open mic session at the Garfield Center, and plans are in progress for a Youth Expression Talent Showcase later in the year.
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