PlayhouseSquare to Host Convo with Harlem Children's Zone's Geoffrey Canada 8/23

The PlayhouseSquare Community Engagement & Education Department is hosting "A Conversation with Geoffrey Canada: Improving the Lives of Children, One Poor Child at a Time" on Monday, August 23 at 1 p.m. This event is presented by the PNC Grow Up Great Program, a partnership with The Cleveland Museum of Art, The Cleveland Orchestra, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum and PlayhouseSquare.

As President and CEO of the revolutionary Harlem Children's Zone in New York City, Geoffrey Canada has dedicated the past 20 years of his life to helping the most impoverished, at-risk youth beat the odds. Radically ambitious and startlingly simple, Canada's programs are on the cutting edge of preventing youth violence and fostering community development.

What Canada has done for a 24 block neighborhood in Harlem has been groundbreaking, replicated in communities across the country. Through programs such as the Beacon School, Community Pride Initiative, Harlem Gems, Harlem Peacemakers, and the Promise Academy, a new generation of charter school, he has developed a network of services that reach most of the 6,500 children and their families living in the Harlem Children's Zone.

The acclaimed author of Fist Stick Knife Gun: A Personal History of Violence in America and Reaching Up for Manhood, a moving vision of hope for young boys, Canada is also East Coast Coordinator for the Black Community Crusade for Children.

Canada knows inner-city life firsthand. Having grown up in the South Bronx, he went on to earn a Master's Degree in Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Recently, Canada was honored with the prestigious McGraw Prize for education. In his vibrant, hands-on presentation, he teaches communities about improving the lives of today's youth, one child at a time.

Canada's ideas and life work are chronicled in New York Times reporter Paul Tough's book, Whatever It Takes: Geoffrey Canada's Quest to Change Harlem and America. More information on Geoffrey Canada is available at www.apbspeakers.com.

Free tickets for this event are available online at playhousesquare.org/community and at The PlayhouseSquare Ticket Office (1519 Euclid Ave.).

PlayhouseSquare understands its vital role as an educator in our community, and is committed to providing arts learning opportunities of the highest quality to enrich the lives of students, families, teachers and adults. PlayhouseSquare's Community Engagement & Education Department is unique in the performing arts industry for the variety of programs it offers, the partnerships it initiates and the access it provides students, educators and aspiring artists to performing arts professionals. Since its inception in 1998, the Community Engagement & Education Department has offered thousands of events, workshops, classes and more, most with minimal or no fees, to people of all ages from all areas of Northeast Ohio. The generous support of individual and corporate donors and foundations makes it all possible.

The Cleveland Museum of Art is renowned for the quality and breadth of its collection, which includes more than 40,000 objects and spans 6,000 years of achievement in the arts. Currently undergoing a multi-phase renovation and expansion project, it is a significant international forum for exhibitions, scholarship, performing arts and art education. Admission to the museum has been free since its founding charter.

Long considered one of America's great orchestras, The Cleveland Orchestra stands today among the world's most-revered sym­phonic ensembles. Under the leadership of Music Director Franz Welser-Möst, in concerts at home in Severance Hall, at its summer home, Blossom Music Center; and on tour, The Cleveland Orchestra continues to set standards of performing excellence and imaginative programming that serve as models for audiences and performers alike. The Cleveland Orchestra's Education and Community Programs provide a large and diverse population across Northeast Ohio with a wide range of musical programs, learning opportunities, and community-building celebrations.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is the nonprofit organization that exists to educate visitors, fans and scholars from around the world about the history and continuing significance of rock and roll music. It carries out this mission both through its operation of a world-class museum that collects, preserves, exhibits and interprets this art form and through its library and archives as well as its educational programs. For general inquiries, please call 216-781-ROCK or visit www.rockhall.com.

The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. (www.pnc.com) is one of the nation's largest diversified financial services organizations providing retail and business banking; specialized services for corporations and government entities, including corporate banking, real estate finance and asset-based lending; wealth management; asset management and global fund services.

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