Girl Be Heard Takes Activism To The Stage With MainStage Production ORGANIZE: TAKE TO THE STREETS

Girl Be Heard, a Brooklyn based organization that amplifies and celebrates the voices of girls and young women of color through socially conscious theatre-making, storytelling and performance, presents their 2023 Mainstage Performance, Organize: Take to the Streets!, May 23 and 24 at Symphony Spaces' Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theater. Written and performed by an international cast of nine professional young "artivists", ages 17-24, the work features original music and personal narratives of racial justice, gender equity, environment justice and global solidarity, and other issues facing our communities today and how to mobilize a movement to make change.

Directed and choreographed by Dr. Angela Fatou Gittens, Organize: Take to the Streets! is connected to this year's Girl Be Heard themes of activism and social action, and is a reflection of the anchoring topics integral to Girl Be Heard and explored by the Company throughout the year. The Company will express the many phases and stages of what it takes to organize a movement, a social change, and even a revolution when masses of people become dissatisfied with their current conditions. Led by a cast of creative actors, poets, singers, and dancers, Organize: Take to the Streets! highlights-in the name of social justice-not only what we see when organizers take to the streets; but the hard and strategic work that comes before calling on the general public to mobilize. By highlighting the personal interests of each cast member and connecting artistic practices to social issues, this production showcases the transformative power of artivism, and the importance of amplifying underrepresented voices.

"From justice in the streets of the U.S. South & Soweto to the streets of the Bronx to farmers' fields in India to the parking lots of U.S. hospitals with poor Black maternal health services, GBH's talented Company Members reflect on the emotional journeys of participants in movements past and present while helping audience members to develop an awareness of these historical moments," notes Fatou-Gittens.

"In keeping with this year's company theme "Organize: Take to the Streets", we aspire to provide the audience with a deeper awareness of the historical moments in social and justice movements, fostering a greater understanding of the common threads, struggles, and structural patterns that unite movements across the globe," adds Robin Jenkins, Interim Executive Director of Girl Be Heard. "This performance provides a unique glimpse into the behind-the-scenes preparation and emotional labor involved in a movement. The performers, who are girls and gender non-conforming youth from underrepresented communities in New York, offer their own experiences and insights to illuminate the lived realities of those who are so often silenced."

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