Join City at Peace-New York

Download an Audition Flier! If you’re 13 to 19 and interested in working with 80 teenagers from all over New York to build a “CITY AT PEACE”… If you’d like to write and perform an original musical based on your life, learn how to create change in your lives & communities & help to lead projects that work to improve your community, then… Come to a GROUP OPEN AUDITION!

***Participants are not chosen based on performance skills or talent - No prior performing experience is necessary, whatsoever. You do not have to prepare anything. Just come have fun!***

WHEN: SATURDAY September 13th, SATURDAY September 20th, and SATURDAY September 27th 
10:30am sharp until 1:00pm (You must attend entire 2 hour audition to be considered)

WHERE: East Side Community High School
420 East 12th St. btwn 1st Ave and Ave A
L train to 1st Ave. or 4, 5, 6, N, R, Q, W to 14th St. Union Square

PROGRAM TIMELINE:
Auditions held in September 2008
. Cast meets Saturdays October 2008 through June 2009. 
Premiere Performances in late April 2009. Touring Performances in May and June 2009.

REMEMBER:
Participants are not chosen based on talent but on your willingness to create positive change in your lives and your city!

Want us to come to your school?
If you think City at Peace should hold auditions at your school, send us an email with the following information:
Your name
Your school
The name of the person we should contact at your school.

City at Peace-New York Tel: 212 924 9204 kellyc@cpnational.org

April Community Engagement Calendar

Day of Silence
April 25th - The Day of Silence is an annual event held to bring attention to anti-LGBT bullying, harassment and discrimination in schools. Students and teachers nationwide will observe the day in silence to echo the silence that LGBT and ally students face every day. The Day of Silence is one of the largest student-led actions in the country. CP-NY participants will take part in this action to raise awareness about this issue.

Take Back the Night
Take Back the Night is a national movement that began in Belgium in 1976. At first, the movement was primarily concerned with the role of pornography in perpetuating violence against women. Today, however, on many college campuses nationwide, student-run Take Back the Night chapters largely focus on sexual assault and domestic violence. The first march at Columbia University was organized at Barnard College as a product of a Seven Sisters conference. The march was held in April of 1988, with a participation of nearly 200 students. Since then, march attendance has grown every year. Take Back The Night has also expanded in terms of the activities it offers, as well as broadening the focus of the group to include domestic violence in addition to sexual assault and rape. The march and speak out are the culmination of a year’s worth of programming about these issues. CP-NY cast members will attend the march and take part in connected activities.

Clothesline Project
The Clothesline Project (CLP) is a program started on Cape Cod, MA, in 1990 to address the issue of violence against women. It is a vehicle for women affected by violence to express their emotions by decorating a shirt. They then hang the shirt on a clothesline to be viewed by others as testimony to the problem of violence against women. CP-NY cast members will create their own Clothesline Project in Union Square.

IF YOU ARE A TEENAGER IN NYC AND WOULD LIKE TO JOIN WITH THE CITY AT PEACE PARTICIPANTS IN ANY OF THE ABOVE ACTIONS, PLEASE CONTACT US TO FIND OUT HOW TO JOIN WITH US.

March Community Service Calendar

Mix It Up at School Day
Mix It Up at Lunch Day is a simple call to action: take a new seat in the cafeteria. By making the move, students can cross the lines of division, meet new people and make new friends. The participants will take part in and organize Mix It Up at School days in their schools and develop ideas to improve diversity and understanding in their schools following these events. CP-NY cast members will create Mix It Up at School days in their schools in the five boroughs.
Habitat For Humanity
March 31-April 6, 2008 Habitat for Humanity’s Act! Speak! Build! Week 2008. Act! Speak! Build! Week is Habitat’s international, student-initiated week of advocacy. Act! Speak! Build! Week empowers young people to educate themselves and their communities and move people to social action. Young people, ages 5 to 25, work in partnership with local affiliates to plan and host events focused on ending poverty housing. CP-NY will send a delegation of youth representatives from the casts to participate.
Violence Against Women
CP-NY will obtain a copy of the documentary “Killing Me Softly” and will create a workshop to follow either facilitated by someone connected with the making of the film and/or CP-NY staff and YC. Additionally, a Top Ten List of ways men can become women’s ally’s in safety will be sought or created.
Jean Kilbourne’s pioneering work helped develop and popularize the study of gender representation in advertising. Her award-winning films Killing Us Softly (1979) and Still Killing Us Softly (1987) have influenced millions of college and high school students across two generations and on an international scale. In this important new film, Kilbourne reviews if and how the image of women in advertising has changed over the last 20 years. With wit and warmth, Kilbourne uses over 160 ads and commercials to critique advertising’s image of women. By fostering creative and productive dialogue, she invites viewers to look at familiar images in a new way, that moves and empowers them to take action. Distributed by the Media Education Foundation.

IF YOU ARE A TEENAGER IN NYC AND WOULD LIKE TO JOIN WITH THE CITY AT PEACE PARTICIPANTS IN ANY OF THE ABOVE ACTIONS, PLEASE CONTACT US TO FIND OUT HOW TO JOIN WITH US.

Celebrate Spring with City at Peace!

Celebrate the First Day of Spring!
Join us for a fundraiser at Saks Fifth Avenue
in support of City at Peace!

When: Thursday, March 20th

Time: 6:30pm to 9pm

Where: SAKS FIFTH AVENUE, The Eighth Floor Café, 49th and 5th Avenue

Tickets: $35 in advance, $40 at the door
Buy Tickets Online Can’t make it? Donate Now
All Proceeds go to support City at Peace.

Event Activities:
-15% off all purchases at SAKS FIFTH AVENUE during the hours of the event –
plus an additional hour of after-hours shopping from 8-9pm!
- Autograph signing by Sam Garnes, former Safety for the NY Giants
- Chocolate Tasting by Charbonnel et Walker
- Men’s and Women’s Trunk Show, including various SAKS FIFTH AVENUE Designers
- Estee Lauder Makeovers
- Discounted Men’s Made-to-Order Fittings
- Gift Bag from SAKS FIFTH AVENUE and City at Peace
- Free Food and Drink
- A Silent Auction, including:
Signed jersey from the NY Giants
Coach Leather picture frame
Jewelry by Holsted Jewelers
Gourmet Food Basket from Baskets Etc.
Pearl Necklace
… and more to be added soon!

“What’s the Story” Premiere

Due in large part to recent grant awards from the Time Warner Youth Media & Arts Fund, a Union Square Arts Initiative Award, a grant from the Department of Cultural Affairs and the contributions of hundreds of generous supporters, CP-NY was able to expand it’s programming.

The pilot program, with a cast of 18 has been designed in order to test the hues of smaller program sizes, to facilitate touring the show in the five boroughs and to explore the after-school time slot for CP-NY programming in NYC. This cast’s first original musical, “What’s The Story”, premiered at The Cherry Lane Theatre in the West Village from January 31st through February 2nd, 2008.

The plot of “What’s the Story” revolves around a class project given to the youth cast challenging them to use an art form to convey the essence of their experiences as young people in NYC. One of the students decides to use film to document the lives of her classmates. As she goes along, the story she tries to tell changes (hence the show title). The show will use film throughout. The issues dealt with are homelessness, the nature of friendship, domestic abuse and the impact of divorce.

Some Audience Feedback:

“Congrats to you, the cast, and the rest of the staff on an AMAZING show. I just got home from a post-show coffee “debrief” with my friends who came to the show, and we were all blown away. One of my friends said that it was an honor to see the show. We all loved the multi-media and the powerful performances. “- Brenda Tilles Wilensky, CP-NY Board Member

“HUGE congrats on the show. It was, as always, a remarkably moving, evening. I thought the film stuff worked so well - it all just blew me away. big big congrats.”- Ilene Rosen, Director of Marketing, The Public Theater

“It was an honor to be in the Cherry Lane on Saturday night. The work was all we’d expected and more. While the stories were tough to hear, the fact that we were hearing them was testament to the indomitable spirit of your young performers. In short, it was a thrill. And we were equally bowled over by the audience, so rapt in their attention and so respectful of the performers. All in all, a night to truly remember.” -John Dillon Director, Theatre Program, Sarah Lawrence College

Youth Rights

Youth Rights - Still in early development stages.
If you would be interested in learning more about these projects or think you can help any of the groups with professional mentoring, fundraising or anything else, please contact us at 212 924 9204.

For Youth Information

For Youth Information (FYI) – This is a project that is championing youth-led media that supports growth and inspires social change. They will publish a ‘zine’ that will be produced online and will be subsequently printed and distributed to schools in NYC several times a year. This website/online zine, and these publications, will be built with youth writings on myriad subjects, giving a wide range of teenagers a voice and will include them in discussions from which youth are usually omitted and ignored.
If you would be interested in learning more about these projects or think you can help any of the groups with professional mentoring, fundraising or anything else, please contact us at 212 924 9204.

City at Peace Sex and Drugs Education

City at Peace Sex and Drugs Education (CAPSADE) – CAPSADE works to educate teenagers to help reduce the number of teenagers who contract STD’s and to reduce or eliminate their use of drugs. They perform a short play for other NYC youth highlighting issues around youth, sex and drugs and facilitates adjoining question & answer sessions. CAPSADE collaborates with The Children’s Aid Society and performs in many venues around the city including high schools and health fairs.
If you would be interested in learning more about these projects or think you can help any of the groups with professional mentoring, fundraising or anything else, please contact us at 212 924 9204.

Eye to Eye

Eye to Eye – Eye to Eye are producing a documentary, developed to create lasting and powerful positive change in the lives and communities of the young people with whom CP-NY works and parents and teens in NYC. The documentary will involve interviews with both parents and their teens, and will attempt to create an indirect dialogue between them by addressing the stumbling blocks and impasses that often lead to rifts in communication by examining the parent and teenagers’ individual perspectives. An in-depth and widespread distribution plan will be developed to screen the completed documentary at schools, community centers, festivals, family oriented institutions such as the JCC and PFLAG, followed by peer (parent and teen) educational workshops and question and answer sessions. The documentary will also be submitted to film festivals (both nationally and internationally).
If you would be interested in learning more about these projects or think you can help any of the groups with professional mentoring, fundraising or anything else, please contact us at 212 924 9204.

The Window of Opportunity

The Window of Opportunity (TWO) – TWO focuses on empowering disempowered youth to make formal decisions about the direction they wish to follow in their lives, motivating them through providing extensive information on choices post high school such as scholarships, trade schools, internships and other relevant information. They will disseminate this information through booklets at schools and through their website, creating interactive support system for all teenagers, but focusing primarily on schools with the lowest graduation rate.
If you would be interested in learning more about these projects or think you can help any of the groups with professional mentoring, fundraising or anything else, please contact us at 212 924 9204.